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ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming retreats from corporate roles as firm’s IPO plan remains in limbo
- Zhang Yiming has relinquished his role as the legal representative of three ByteDance-affiliated companies
- He will step down as chief executive of ByteDance at the end of this year
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ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming, the Chinese entrepreneur who is one of the world’s wealthiest billionaires under 40, has resigned as legal representative of at least three affiliated companies, months after announcing he would step down as chief executive of the country’s biggest tech unicorn at the end of this year.
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Zhang, 38, on Wednesday relinquished his role as legal representative of Tianjin Tongrong E-commerce Co, the entity used by ByteDance to acquire Wuhan Hezhong Yibao Technology Co, operator of Chinese third-party payment service UIPay. He was replaced by Zhang Lidong, the head of commercialisation strategy at Beijing-based ByteDance.
Also on Wednesday, Zhang gave up his legal representative roles at Tianjin ByteDance Management Consulting Co and Tianjin ByteDance Haihe Management Consulting Co. These two businesses are involved in corporate image strategy and marketing campaigns, according to company records on enterprise information portal Tianyancha.
Li Fei, who has been in charge of several education, social and gaming projects at ByteDance, has taken over as legal representative of those two companies.
ByteDance, operator of hit short video-sharing apps TikTok and Douyin, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Zhang’s exit from those corporate roles appears in line with his vow to give up day-to-day responsibilities to “be more impactful on longer-term initiatives”, according to an internal memo posted on ByteDance’s website in May.
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