Major reorganisation at ByteDance, CFO and chairman step down

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ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming has stepped down as chairman of the company, according to Bloomberg. However, he is said to be staying on with the company to help formulate the company's longer-term strategy. The report said CEO Liang Rubo will now replace Zhang on the five-member board which includes representatives from several investors such as Susquehanna International Group and Sequoia Capital China.

The shuffle comes shortly after ByteDance announced leadership changes in May with Zhang then CEO handing the title over to co-founder and HR head Liang.

Meanwhile, CEO of Tiktok Shou Zi Chew, who also holds the role of ByteDance's CFO, will relinquish the latter title to focus on running the short video business full time, according to Reuters which saw an internal memo. Chew joined the ByteDance as CFO in March and was appointed as TikTok CEO in May. The memo, which was sent out by Liang to ByteDance staff on Tuesday, also outlined a major reshuffle at the Beijing-based company to create six business units, including TikTok and its Chinese version Douyin, work collaboration unit Lark, business services unit BytePlus, gaming unit Nuverse, and education tech unit Dali Education.

ByteDance’s products in China, including Douyin, news aggregator Toutiao, video-streaming platform Xigua, will be included in the Douyin unit, which will take over all information and service operations in the Chinese market.

ByteDance's restructuring comes at a time when China is crackdown on tech companies continues. In April, ByteDance kicked off preparations for an IPO of its domestic assets but proceeded cautiously due to regulatory changes, according to Bloomberg. Later on, the company repeatedly said it is not ready for an IPO.

Tech companies have been undergoing management changes over the previous months. Earlier this week, video-sharing mobile app Kuaishou's CEO Su Hua has left the position and was replaced by co-founder Cheng Yixiao. With the move, Su will devote more time to formulating the company's long-term strategies and exploring new initiatives.

Kuaishou said in a statement on 29 October that Su ceased to serve as CEO of the company but he will continue serving as the chairman of the board, an executive director and a member of the remuneration committee.

Also in September, JD.com made several senior promotions with immediate effect to strengthen its service offerings and allow chairman and CEO Richard Liu to work on the company's long term strategies. The company promoted Xu Lei as president of JD.com. In his new role, Xu, who continues to report to Liu, leads the day-to-day operation and collaborative development of various business units of JD.com.

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