Chinese tech unicorn ByteDance co-founder billionaire Zhang Yiming on Thursday announced that he will step down as CEO, in a surprise move that signalled a major leadership shake-up at the nine year-old technology firm which created popular global short-video app TikTok.<\/p>\n
Zhang, 38, who is one of China’s wealthiest entrepreneurs, said he is ready to step down after nearly a decade of running the world’s largest unicorn, becoming the latest among the country’s technology founders to quit in their prime.<\/p>\n
Zhang will step down from his role as CEO of the Beijing-based ByteDance, giving up his day-to-day responsibilities to “be more impactful on longer-term initiatives,” the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post<\/em> quoted the company announcement on Thursday.<\/p>\n “The truth is, I lack some of the skills that make an ideal manager.<\/p>\n “I’m more interested in analysing organisational and market principles, and leveraging these theories to further reduce management work, rather than actually managing people,” Zhang wrote in a message on the company’s website.<\/p>\n “Similarly, I’m not very social, preferring solitary activities like being online, reading, listening to music, and contemplating what may be possible,” he said.<\/p>\n Zhang’s sudden move to step down followed a similar pattern by top Chinese business tycoons including the Alibaba founder, Jack Ma, who stepped down in May last year, sparking speculation about the increasingly difficult business environment in China.<\/p>\n Since then he and his e-commence giant came under severe scrutiny from the regulators.<\/p>\n Alibaba subsequently came under increasing scrutiny by antitrust regulators who slapped a record fine of $2.78 billion last month for indulging in a monopolistic act of abusing its dominant market position.<\/p>\n Zhang said he will be replaced by Liang Rubo, ByteDance’s head of human resources.<\/p>\n Zhang said he will remain at ByteDance, where he will focus on “longer-term initiatives” after stepping back from day-to-day responsibilities.<\/p>\n He did not say whether he would remain chairman of the firm, nor specify what form of his new role would take but hinted that he may focus on social impact.<\/p>\n Zhang has a net worth of $35.6 billion as of 2020, according to Forbes<\/em>.<\/p>\n ByteDance hit the global headlines after its main video app TikTok ran into trouble in India and the US.<\/p>\n TikTok, which was hugely popular in India, was part of over 267 Chinese Apps banned in India.<\/p>\n ByteDance projected $6 billion loss due to the ban on TikTok in India.<\/p>\n During his presidency, Donald Trump constantly attacked ByteDance, accusing TikTok of being a threat to US national security.<\/p>\n US politicians and officials had expressed concerns about users’ personal data being passed to the Chinese government.<\/p>\n TikTok denied accusations that it shared user data.<\/p>\n Last month, ByteDance was one of 13 online platforms called on by Chinese regulators to adhere to tighter regulations in their financial divisions, as part of a wider push to rein in technology companies, BBC reported.<\/p>\n For many years, Beijing took a hands-off approach to encourage the technology firms to grow but official scrutiny of their platforms has stepped up as they have branched out into financial services, it said.<\/p>\n The People’s Bank of China in a recent statement said, “internet platforms have played an important role in improving the efficiency of financial services and broadening the access of financial services to more people.<\/p>\n “At the same time, some financial services were running without licences, and there are serious rule violations in areas such as regulatory arbitrage, unfair competition and damaging consumers’ interests.”<\/p>\n