The surprise resignation of ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming as chief executive has left many unanswered questions at the tech unicorn, not the least being “why now” and “what’s next” for the company behind hit short video-sharing apps Tik Tok and Douyin. Perhaps the most intriguing question is whether Zhang, who created ByteDance in a Beijing residential flat nine years ago, will remain the de facto boss after he officially cedes day-to-day responsibilities to his co-founder and college dormitory buddy Liang Rubo over the next six months. Zhang, 38, who is the face of ByteDance as Mark Zuckerberg is for Facebook and Pony Ma Huateng for Tencent Holdings, is likely to continue wielding power behind the scenes through his equity holdings, as well as via his influence over executives, to ensure strategic continuity of the company, analysts said. “Despite quitting the CEO job, Zhang is still ByteDance’s co-founder and major shareholder, or at least he has agreement with the investors that makes him a key person behind ByteDance,” said Xu Xixiong, a professor of management at Chongqing University. Xu said shedding the title does not mean Zhang is giving up control of key decision making at the company, one of the world’s largest unicorns with a valuation of nearly US$400 billion. The man who turned ByteDance and TikTok into a global sensation “His successor is a co-founder … the personnel change wouldn’t have a large impact on its current operations and management,” Xu added. In a letter to ByteDance employees explaining his decision to relinquish the CEO role, Zhang said it was a personal choice, pointing out that he was “not good at managing people” and was not a social person. He also said the job of CEO hindered his personal pursuit of knowledge and study. In his letter, Zhang did not mention the increased regulatory pressure from the Chinese government, or the recent scrutiny TikTok received from Washington over national security concerns. Zhang’s announcement 10 days ago did not mention any change to his role as chairman of the company’s board of directors. Zhang holds 25 per cent of the company’s shares, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal in September last year. ByteDance did not reply to a request for comment for this article. Zhang is not the first founder of a Chinese tech giant to step back. Pinduoduo founder Colin Huang, 41, announced in March that he was stepping down as chairman of the Nasdaq-listed online retail company, while Ant Group’s Simon Hu said in the same month he would step down as CEO and executive director to devote his “full efforts towards philanthropic work”. In 2019, Jack Ma, founder of South China Morning Post owner Alibaba Group Holding, stepped down as executive chairman of China’s largest e-commerce platform. These so-called resignations have made it harder for outsiders, from investors to regulators, to gain a clearer understanding of how decisions are made at China’s Big Tech firms, and to determine who is behind key decisions. Still, it is certain that tech company founders remain hugely influential regardless of their current job titles. “Like other company CEOs or executives, just because you step down doesn’t mean you don’t control the company,” said Cameron Johnson, an adjunct faculty instructor at New York University and a partner at Shanghai-based Tidal Wave Solutions. “You’re no longer a figurehead of the business, but you still control it, or exert heavy influence.” Zhang’s resignation came shortly after ByteDance hit a speed bump in its plan to file for an initial public offering, with sources telling the Post earlier that the Beijing-based company was having difficulties balancing regulatory demands from both Beijing and Washington. Wang Pengbo, a Beijing-based financial analyst, said the departure of Zhang from the chief executive position added uncertainty to the IPO plans because it cast a shadow over the company when it was “facing many pressures both internally and externally”. In the US, the forced divestment of TikTok initiated under the Trump administration last year is still up in the air, pending a review by the Biden administration. Meanwhile, India – one of TikTok’s biggest markets in terms of users – banned the app last year on national security grounds. On the Chinese mainland, local tech giants have faced tighter antitrust scrutiny after Beijing identified regulation as a key issue this year. In March, a ByteDance subsidiary was fined 500,000 yuan (US$78,000) for failing to properly report a merger deal. The fine was the maximum penalty under the offence. A month later, regulators summoned ByteDance and 33 of its peers to a meeting where they were told to not abuse their algorithms or expand their capital in a “disorderly” fashion. The company’s AI-powered recommendation algorithm is the secret sauce for many of its content platforms, including TikTok and Douyin. However, Douyin was among 105 apps called out this month by China’s internet watchdog for illegal collection and use of personal data, as Beijing tightens scrutiny over online privacy. Alex Capri, a visiting senior fellow at the National University of Singapore Business School, said the rapidly changing regulatory environment in China was a major reason why Zhang decided to step back. “This is part of a broader pattern, a government induced shake up that’s happening in the tech sector in China,” Capri said. “[It] started with Alibaba, Jack Ma and the Ant group … [it’s] a high pressure environment for these tech CEOs. I think it’s a way of basically mitigating potential future events.” Zhang, who comes across as a rational and pragmatic engineer, is sometimes shy, according to ByteDance employees who spoke to the Post . But that does not mean he shies away from dealing with complex government and business relationships. After announcing he would step down as CEO, his successor Liang said Zhang was “always … the first person to deal with unexpected challenges,” according to an internal memo viewed by the Post .