Zhang Yiming will step down as CEO of ByteDance

ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming will step down as the group’s chief executive behind the popular video app TikTok, in the latest retreat from the spotlight of a Chinese technology leader as Beijing represses the industry.

Zhang, 38, founded ByteDance nearly a decade ago, pushing the Beijing-based group to spread a slew of successful apps, including TikTok and Chinese sister platform Douyin. He also ran the company for a period of US-China tensions.

ByteDance said Zhang would step down as chief executive at the end of the year and would be replaced by co-founder and head of human resources Liang Rubo.

The transition comes as the company reflects on a first public offer, with its shares recently traded at a valuation of more than $ 200 billion in private markets, according to people familiar with the subject.

“Since the beginning of this year, I have spent a lot of time thinking about how to better drive real long-term progress, which cannot depend simply on steady but incremental progress,” Zhang wrote in a blog post. ‘company.

Zhang said he would stay in the company full time, but will work on “long-term initiatives” and help “drive innovation, taking advantage of my very focused learning strengths.”

“I lack some of the skills that make an ideal manager,” Zhang wrote. “I’m more interested in analyzing organizational and market principles,” he added, saying he wasn’t “very social” and preferred “solitary activities like being online, reading, listening to music and daydreaming.”

His resignation also came as the Chinese technology industry was affected regulatory assault, and followed other notable departures from major technology companies.

Colin Huang, founder of Pinduoduo, left the e-commerce group in March, while also facing the Meituan food distribution group an antitrust probe.

Chinese regulators in November suspended the initial $ 37 billion public offering of fintech Ant Group, which would have been the largest stock exchange in history, at the last minute.

Ant’s e-commerce subsidiary, Alibaba, was fined a record $ 2.8 billion last month after regulators found he had abused his market dominance.

Jack Ma, the founder of both companies, has done just that it has hardly been seen in public since criticizing China’s regulators and state-owned banks in a speech in Shanghai late last year.

Additional reports from Nian Liu in Beijing