Zhang Yiming, co-founder of ByteDance, will step down as CEO and transition to a new role by the end of 2021.
"ByteDance co-founder and HR head Liang Rubo will become the new CEO, and Yiming and Rubo will work side by side over the next six months to ensure the smoothest possible transition," ByteDance said in a statement.
Zhang said that he is stepping down to focus more on longer-term initiatives as he found himself not an "ideal manager" after months of deliberation.
"Recently, several colleagues have asked me why I haven't updated my Objectives & Key Results (OKRs). Frankly, I feel I did not achieve as much as I had hoped to on my previous objectives in the areas of new strategic opportunities, organizational management, and social responsibility. Since the beginning of this year, I've spent a lot of time thinking about how to better drive real long-term breakthroughs, which cannot simply rely on steady, but incremental, progress," he said in an internal letter.
"I came to the conclusion that transitioning out of the role of CEO, with all of the related day-to-day responsibilities, would enable me to have greater impact on longer-term initiatives," he said.
"I think someone else can better drive progress through areas like improved daily management. 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," he added.
Founded in 2012, ByteDance owns many popular apps in China, including TikTok's Chinese version Douyin, video sharing platforms Xigua Video and Douyin Huoshan, the Chinese news and information content platform Toutiao, enterprise collaboration platform Lark, and car information service provider Dongchedi.
TikTok, with about 800 million monthly active users globally, has been embroiled in the U.S. restrictions imposed on tech companies since last year. It filed a lawsuit in August against the Trump administration over a ban on new downloads of the app.
