Bytedance Ltd. founder and soon-to-be ex-CEO Zhang Yiming
Gilles Sabrie/Bloomberg/© 2019 Bloomberg Finance LP
In a surprise announcement on Thursday, billionaire ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming said he will be stepping down from the CEO job by the end of the year, when he’ll transition to a new role at the Chinese social media giant. Best known for his company’s short-video app TikTok and news aggregation app Toutiao, Zhang, who’s just 37 years old, is the latest Chinese tech billionaire to step away from his company in recent years.
“The truth is, I lack some of the skills that make an ideal manager. I’m more interested in analyzing organizational and market principles, and leveraging these theories to further reduce management work, rather than actually managing people. Similarly, I’m not very social, preferring solitary activities like being online, reading, listening to music and daydreaming about what may be possible,” Zhang…
