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GUANGZHOU, China — ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming has stepped down as chairman, as the corporate continues to reorganize its enterprise, an individual with direct information of the matter advised CNBC.
ByteDance owns TikTok, the wildly in style short-video app.
Zhang announced his resignation as the CEO of ByteDance in May and mentioned he would transfer into a method position this 12 months.
Liang Rubo, who took over as CEO, will now additionally take up the position as chairman.
ByteDance declined to remark when contacted by CNBC.
The transfer comes after an enormous reorganization at ByteDance this week. Shou Zi Chew, who joined ByteDance as CFO from smartphone maker Xiaomi in March, will step down from his position as finance chief to focus full time on his other job as CEO of TikTok.
The Beijing-headquartered agency has additionally created six enterprise items to give attention to totally different areas from gaming to enterprise software program.
When Zhang introduced his plans to step down as CEO in Could, he mentioned in a be aware to staff that he believed another person can “higher drive progress via areas like improved day by day administration.”
“The reality is, I lack among the abilities that make a perfect supervisor,” he mentioned at the moment.
ByteDance was caught within the geopolitical crosshairs final 12 months after the administration of President Donald Trump dubbed the corporate a nationwide safety menace and tried to force it to sell its U.S. operations. That didn’t occur ultimately.
ByteDance’s reorganization comes after a lot of reshuffles at Chinese language corporations by which founders have stepped again from their day-to-day duties.
Final week, Su Hua, the co-founder of TikTok rival Kuaishou stepped down as CEO however stayed on as chairman. And in September, Richard Liu, the founding father of e-commerce big JD.com, stepped back from day-to-day operations to give attention to the corporate’s long-term technique.
