May 21, 2021: -Zhang Yiming,CEO of TikTok, co-founder of ByteDance, will step down as CEO and transition to a new role, the company said on Thursday.

Another co-founder, Liang Rubio, the current head of human resources, will globally take over as CEO of ByteDance. Zhang will move into a critical strategy role by 2021.

“There are still many things that we need to improve, and I think someone else can better drive progress through areas like improved daily management. The truth is, I lack some of the skills that make an ideal manager,” Zhang said in a note to employees.

“I’m much more interested in analyzing organizational and market principles and leveraging these theories to reduce further management work, rather than managing people. Similarly, I’m not very social, preferring solitary activities such as being online, reading, listening to music, and daydreaming about things,” he added.

ByteDance said Zhang and Liang “will work side by side for the coming six months to ensure the smoothest possible transition.”

The move came after nine months for ByteDance after it got dubbed a national security threat by Donald Trump’s administration in August and was ordered to divest its TikTok business in the U.S.

This sparked a bidding war amid companies, which included Microsoft and Oracle. TikTok is just ByteDance’s very popular app for short videos.

In February, the Wall Street Journal reported that a deal to sell TikTok to Oracle and Walmart had been indefinitely shelved.

Instead of the trouble with the U.S., ByteDance continues to expand its business empire under Zhang. The company was found in 2012 when it launched a platform for sharing jokes in short videos, memes, and written posts.

And in March, ByteDance acquired major gaming studio Moonton to push into the lucrative mobile gaming market and challenge Tencent and NetEase.

ByteDance has had several management changes over the past few months. Last August, Kevin Mayer, who Disney hired to be the TikTok CEO, stepped down because Washington grew on the social media app.

TikTok’s U.S. general manager Vanessa Pappas took over the role on an interim basis.

In March, Chew Shou Zi, the former finance chief at Xiaomi, was poached by ByteDance to become the company’s chief financial officer. Just last month, Chew was appointed the CEO of TikTok, taking over from Pappas, who is now the chief operating officer.