ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming steps down as chairman to focus on TikTok

ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming had announced his resignation as chief executive officer in May

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ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming has stepped down as chairman of the TikTok owner, after announcing his resignation as chief executive officer in May, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

New CEO Liang Rubo will take on the role of chairman, the person added.

ByteDance did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

On Tuesday, Liang announced a major organisational reshuffle at ByteDance by creating six business units: TikTok and its Chinese version Douyin, work collaboration unit Lark, business services unit BytePlus, gaming unit Nuverse, and education tech unit Dali Education.

Liang also said TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will step down as its parent ByteDance's chief financial officer (CFO) to focus on running the short video platform full time.

Chew joined ByteDance as CFO in March and was appointed as TikTok CEO in May.

(Reporting by Yingzhi Yang in Beijing and Bhargav Acharya in Bengaluru; editing by Shri Navaratnam and Richard Pullin)