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TikTok owner ByteDance's co-founder announces to step down as CEO

Date: May 21, 2021 Sunil Jha Sunil Jha
TikTok owner ByteDance's co-founder announces to step down as CEO 
The CEO and co-founder of Chinese technology major ByteDance, which owns TikTok, has reportedly made a announcement that he will step down and move into a new role by the end of 2021.



Zhang Yiming stated that he will be succeeded by his fellow co-founder Rubo Liang. The CEO stated that Liang has been an invaluable partner, developing the company’s technology along with recruitment and management of employees. Reportedly, Liang’s recent role at the company was head of human resources department.



Revealing the reason behind this move, Yiming mentioned that he lacks certain skills required to be an ideal manager. He is more inclined towards analyzing the organizational and market principles, and utilizing these theories for further reducing management work, instead of actually managing people, Yiming added.



He further stated that he is not very social and prefers solitary activities such as reading, being online, listening to music and contemplating the possibilities.



Yiming also cited that the leadership transition is expected to take place over the next six months in order to ensure smooth transition.



Headquartered in Beijing, ByteDance was reportedly established in 2012 and created the smashing hit social networking app TikTok having an estimated 700 million active monthly users. However, its massive popularity apparently led to more scrutiny by government authorities across the globe, including in China and America.



Several officials and politicians reportedly raised concerns regarding personal data of users being passed to the Chinese government. However, TikTok has denied these accusations.



ByteDance was recently reported to be one of the thirteen online platforms that were called on by the Chinese regulatory authorities to adhere to the stringent norms in their financial divisions, as a part of the big push to rein in technology firms.



For several years, Beijing apparently took up a hands-off approach for encouraging the technology companies to grow. However, official scrutiny of their platforms has intensified as they have diversified into financial services.



Source credits: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57181225

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Sunil Jha

Sunil Jha has been a part of the content industry for close to two years. Having previously worked as a voice over artist and sportswriter, he now focuses on writing articles for newsorigins.com, across a slew of topics, ranging from technology to trade and finance. With a business-oriented educational background, Sunil brings forth the expertise of deep-dive research and a strategic approach in his write ups.