On May 20, Zhang Yiming announced his resignation as CEO of ByteDance Group. In March of last year, Zhang Yiming stepped down as Chairman of China and appointed Zhang Lidong and Zhang Nan as Chairman and CEO of ByteDance China respectively. After this change of position, Zhang Yiming should remain the Group's Chairman.
As for the reason for leaving office, Zhang Yiming said, “I hope the company can continue to make greater breakthroughs in innovation and become more creative and meaningful. Therefore, it was decided to let go of the daily management of the company and focus on long-term important matters such as long-term strategy, corporate culture, and social responsibility.”
This is also very similar to what Huang Zheng wrote in his letter to shareholders when he stepped down as chairman of Pinduoduo in March of this year. At the time, Huang Zheng wrote, “If we want to ensure the rapid and high-quality development of it (Pinduoduo) 10 years from now, then now is the right time for some exploration. As the founder, I stepped out and touched the stones on the road 10 years from now.”
Zhang Yiming and Huang Zheng are representative figures of post-80s entrepreneurs. They announced their resignation as CEO or chairman early on. The successor they found was their own entrepreneurial partner, which shows their trust in the entrepreneurial partner, and also reflects their courage, liberation, and more ambitious pursuit. Of course, it is not ruled out that there are external factors behind the current society and public opinion, which have higher expectations for internet giants in terms of social responsibility and technological missions.
Anyway, Zhang Yiming is only 38 years old this year and is still very young. I believe he will use a long-term perspective to help Byte go further. He also hopes that Zhang Yiming will bring more innovation beyond expectations to users and society in the future. You can read one of the internal letters below...