Zhang Yiming, the co-founder of TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance, will step down as CEO, he announced Thursday as he admitted to lacking some of the skills necessary to lead the company as its chief executive.
Zhang’s fellow co-founder, Liang Rubo, will take over as CEO of ByteDance, which owns a slate of entertainment and news apps in China and other countries, in addition to TikTok. The shake-up is expected to happen at the end of the year, Zhang said in a letter to employees, which the company posted online.
“The truth is, I lack some of the skills that make an ideal manager. I’m more interested in analyzing organizational and market principles, and leveraging these theories to further reduce management work, rather than actually managing people,” Zhang, who has helped grow the company into one of the largest startups in the world, said in the letter. “Similarly, I’m not very social, preferring solitary activities like being online, reading, listening to music and daydreaming about what may be possible.”
Rubo, who’s currently in charge of human resources at the company, will be able to provide better day-to-day management, said Zhang, who said he will use his extra time to consider
