Advertisement
TikTok
TechBig Tech

Explainer | Who Zhang Yiming is and how he grew ByteDance and TikTok into a global sensation

  • Liang Rubo, long-time collaborator and co-founder of the company, will take over in a move that should enable Zhang to focus on long-term strategy
  • The low-profile Zhang has had to face multiple challenges in recent times, including a stand-off with the US over ownership of TikTok

Reading Time:5 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
1
Zhang Yiming (right), CEO of ByteDance, attends the opening ceremony of the 5th World Internet Conference in Wuzhen in eastern China's Zhejiang Province. Photo: AP
Coco Fengin BeijingandTracy Quin Hong Kong
Employees at Beijing-based ByteDance were taken by surprise on Thursday when Zhang Yiming, the soft-spoken founder of the world’s largest unicorn, announced he was giving up his role as chief executive to “be more impactful on longer-term initiatives”, less than one month after the company’s IPO plans were put on hold.

The 38-year-old billionaire, estimated by Forbes to have a net worth of US$35.6 billion and now the third Big Tech founder in China to have taken a step back in recent times after Alibaba Group Holding’s Jack Ma and Pinduoduo’s Colin Huang, appears at first blush to be just another ordinary Chinese engineer.

“The truth is, I lack some of the skills that make an ideal manager,” he said in a memo posted to the company’s website. “I’m more interested in analysing organisational and market principles, and leveraging these theories to further reduce management work, rather than actually managing people.”

Taking over will be Liang Rubo, long-time collaborator and co-founder of the company, in a move that should enable Zhang to focus on long-term strategy, corporate culture, and social responsibility, in his position as chairman of the company’s board of directors and largest individual shareholder with 25 per cent, according to a September Wall Street Journal report.

Composite image of Zhang Yiming (left) and Liang Rubo (right). Photo: ByteDance/Handout
Composite image of Zhang Yiming (left) and Liang Rubo (right). Photo: ByteDance/Handout

Zhang was raised in Longyan, a city in southwestern Fujian Province, which is known for Hakka culture, a Han Chinese subgroup. This obscure city has groomed two leading tech entrepreneurs: Zhang and Wang Xing, founder and CEO of on-demand delivery giant Meituan.

Advertisement