ByteDance's Zhang Yiming Steps Down as CEO

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Zhang Yiming, founder and CEO of Chinese tech company ByteDance, is stepping down from his CEO position after 9 years, according to major foreign media including The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 19th (local time).

According to reports, CEO Zhang Yiming announced in an internal memo that he would step down from his role to focus on long-term strategy. Zhang will resign as CEO in six months, with co-founder Liang Rubo succeeding him.

In the memo sent to employees, Zhang said, "I lack the qualities to be an ideal manager," and added, "I am more interested in analyzing organizational or market principles and using these theories to assist in management tasks."

Liang, who will become the next CEO, will serve as co-CEO with Zhang for the next six months. Zhang stated, "We will cooperate for the next six months to ensure a smooth handover."

Zhang founded ByteDance in 2012 and grew it into a giant tech company valued at $400 billion in the market over nine years.

ByteDance is a major tech company that owns TikTok, China's representative short-video platform, Douyin, the "Chinese version of TikTok," as well as the news platform Jinri Toutiao and the long-video platform Xigua Spin.

The announcement came nine months after former U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order demanding the sale of TikTok's U.S. operations on the grounds of national security threats, CNBC reported.

ByteDance attempted to sell TikTok's U.S. business to Oracle but halted the sale negotiations in February after U.S. President Joe Biden took office.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.