Founder of TikTok’s Chinese owner giving up CEO title

TikTok’s Chinese founder announced on Thursday that he will step down as the company’s CEO, The Associated Press reported.

Zhang Yiming shared that co-founder Liang Rubo will succeed him as the new CEO of ByteDance Ltd. 

Zhang sent a letter to his employees about his sudden resignation from his post, saying that he lacked “some of the skills that make an ideal manager.” 

This is the first CEO resignation letter that has felt oddly endearing (from ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming) pic.twitter.com/oY3wjWIoii

— Tina Davis (@tina_davis) May 20, 2021

“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 said in his letter. “Similarly, I’m not very social preferring solitary activities like being online, reading, listening to music, and daydreaming about what may be possible.” 

ByteDance Ltd. is the parent company of the popular social media video application TikTok. It is still waiting for the Biden administration to determine whether it will force the company to sell off its U.S. arm.

In 2020, former President Trump declared that TikTok represented a security threat because it could garner personal information about U.S. users for the Chinese government.

The Hill has reached out to TikTok for comment.