remains chairman but plans to relinquish most of his day-to-day duties because they were becoming an increasing burden on his time, a person familiar with the matter said. Zhang will instead focus on longer-term strategy.Liang takes the helm just as ByteDance engineers a series of moves that could shake up China’s internet landscape. It’s preparing for a highly anticipated initial public offering in the US or Hong Kong, and orchestrating its next big act -- in China’s $2.
Zhang founded ByteDance in 2012 before using highly refined AI recommendation engines to create hit news service Toutiao andk. His first big success was Toutiao, which means “headlines” in Chinese. TikTok became a global phenomenon, while its cousin Douyin leads in China’s domestic market. The founder now ranks among the world’s richest people after ByteDance shares traded in the private market at a valuation of more than $US250 billion , people familiar with the dealings have said.
History may be kindest to bosses who quit while they are ahead and do not come back.