TikTok CEO to relinquish CFO role at parent ByteDance

The chief financial officer of TikTok parent company ByteDance will step down to focus his attention full time on running the wildly popular video-sharing app, according to an internal memo sent to employees on Monday.

ByteDance CFO Shou Zi Chew joined ByteDance in March and was appointed TikTok’s chief executive in April.

The shift is part of a broader reorganization that will create six business units within TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance Chief Executive Liang Rubo said in the memo, reported earlier by Reuters. The new structure will include TikTok, Douyin, work collaboration unit Lark, business services unit BytePlus, gaming unit Nuverse and education tech unit Dali.

ByteDance declined to comment on the memo.

Chew was installed as TikTok’s CEO in April, eight months after the resignation of Kevin Mayer, its previous chief executive. Mayer, who helped launch the popular Disney Plus streaming service, resigned after a turbulent year for the popular video sharing service. In his resignation letter after three months at TikTok’s helm, Mayer cited as a reason for his departure then-US President Donald Trump’s threat to ban TikTok unless it was sold to a US-based company.