ByteDance’s Zhang Yiming is stepping down as chair of the Chinese social media group he founded almost a decade ago, relinquishing his last formal executive position at the company behind TikTok.
The 38-year-old’s departure from a formal management role at the company follows a spate of resignations in China’s tech sector as the government steps up oversight and regulation of the industry’s leading entrepreneurs.
Zhang led the Beijing-based company to create a string of hit apps including viral video platforms TikTok and Douyin. But he found himself at the centre of a geopolitical storm last year when the Trump administration tried to force the sale of part of ByteDance’s global business.