Douyin boss Zhang Nan, the CEO position was not kept until the Chinese New Year

Produced by Radar Finance and Economics, edited by Meng Shuai, Deep Sea

As the CEO of Douyin Group, Zhang Nan failed to stay until the Chinese New Year. With only two days left before Chinese New Year's Eve, Zhang Nan, who is regarded by the outside world as a great hero of bytes, announced a blockbuster news in the circle of friends, that is, he will step down as CEO of Douyin Group. 

Although Zhang Nan is not a founding member of Byte, the reason why she can be regarded by the outside world as a hero of Byte is because under her leadership, Byte has successively incubated products including Douyin, Volcano, Qingyan, Jianying, etc. Among them, Douyin, which Zhang Nan led the team to build, has made great contributions to ByteDance's ranking first among the world's unicorns and becoming an Internet giant. 

However, after Zhang Nan stepped down this time, ByteDance had no plans to set up a new CEO for Douyin. As the president of Douyin, Han Shangyou will coordinate all the main businesses related to Douyin (Douyin e-commerce, Douyin life services, Douyin advertising business) and report directly to Zhang Lidong, chairman of ByteDance (China). 

Although Zhang Nan said in his farewell article, "Toss some more things I love in the next ten years", in the eyes of many people, leaving Douyin, which he brought up, means that Zhang Nan and ByteDance's power center have gradually drifted apart, and Byte's decision not to set up a new CEO for Douyin means that Byte's power is becoming more and more concentrated in Byte CEO Liang Rubo.

After bidding farewell to the position of CEO of Douyin, Zhang Nan's next stop is Jianying. Public information shows that Jianying is currently a leader in the video production tool track, but compared with the position of CEO of Douyin, Zhang Nan's voice in Byte seems to have become much smaller. 

It is reported that Zhang Nan has put a lot of energy into the business related to Jianying in the past year. There is also news that Zhang Nan will launch an AI picture and video product in the future. It's just that I don't know if the AI track, which Liang Rubo has high hopes for, can make a new name with the Jianying led by Zhang Nan. 

字节功臣张楠,卸任抖音CEO

"Let's get down to business: I'm ready to take off my heavy responsibility as the CEO of Douyin Group, focus on starting from the 'heart', and toss some things I love in the next ten years with the state of always starting a business", in a long article on the circle of friends released on February 7, Zhang Nan announced that he would step down as CEO of Douyin Group. 

It is worth mentioning that as early as January, there was news on the Internet that ByteDance would change its CEO. At that time, the outside world once speculated that the protagonist affected by this rumor would be Zhang Yiming's good brother Liang Rubo. With the release of Zhang Nan's latest circle of friends, it is rumored on the Internet that the candidate for resignation has fallen to the CEO of Douyin Group. 

In fact, Zhang Nan, who stepped down as CEO of Douyin this time, can be regarded as a veritable hero of ByteDance. Radar Finance learned that in 2013, Zhang Nan started a business to make a picture sharing and exchange community map, and then the company was acquired by ByteDance. With the acquisition of the company, Zhang Nan led the team to join Byte and began to take charge of ByteDance's UGC business.

After joining the ByteDance family, Zhang Nan began to shine in his career. In 2016, Zhang Nan launched products such as Douyin and Volcano from 0 to 1. In 2018, Zhang Nan served as the CEO of Douyin and the head of ByteDance's market brand, responsible for Douyin, Volcano, market brand, etc. 

After years of development, Douyin created by Zhang Nan's team has now become a popular star short video app across the country. In 2018 and 2019, Zhang Nan also led ByteDance's camera business, leading the team to develop popular new products such as Light Face and Jianying. 

On March 12, 2020, on the occasion of its eighth anniversary, ByteDance announced that Zhang Nan will serve as the CEO of ByteDance (China), as the general head of the China business, and comprehensively coordinate the product, operation, marketing and content cooperation of the company's China business, including Toutiao, Douyin, Xigua Video, Search and other businesses and products. Since then, the Douyin Business Division and the Douyin Group have been established, and Zhang Nan has served as the CEO of the Douyin Group. 

This time she stepped down as the CEO of Douyin, Zhang Nan also said in the circle of friends that 2024 is the tenth year she has joined the company. Talking about the decision made this time, Zhang Nan sighed, "As the old saying goes, 'life must be able to afford to let go', and I think 'only when you really let go, can you go all out'."

Regarding Zhang Nan's decision to let go of the CEO of Douyin, Liang Rubo, CEO of ByteDance, expressed his gratitude to Zhang Nan for her contributions and breakthroughs in leading China's information platform business in the past, and looked forward to her continuing efforts in her new position. 

Radar Finance found that with Zhang Nan's resignation as CEO of Douyin Group, another female general in the executive camp of the head Internet company "abdicated". In December last year, Dai Shan, a female disciple of Ma Yun and one of Ali's "Eighteen Arhats", stepped down as CEO of Taotian Group and went to assist Ali in preparing for the establishment of an asset management company, which means that the woman who is regarded as the most powerful woman in Ali has officially bid farewell to the power center of Taotian Group. 

A year ago, after 25 years at the helm of Google and 9 years at the helm of YouTube, Susan Wojcicki, known as the "God of Wealth of Google", made the decision to step down as CEO of YouTube. Earlier, Shirley Sandberg, the "second-in-command" who led Facebook for 14 years, stepped down as Meta's chief operating officer, and then Meta's chief business officer Marne Levine also announced that he was leaving. 

Douyin does not plan to set up a new CEO, and the byte power system is shuffled

After Zhang Nan said goodbye to Douyin's "No. 1 position", how ByteDance will coordinate the management of Douyin in the future has naturally become the focus of attention from the outside world. 

According to media reports, some industry insiders have revealed that since becoming an independent business unit in 2021, Douyin Group's product and commercialization business has been responsible for two shifts of people, each with its own division of labor, and maintaining a certain distance from each other. 

Among them, Zhang Nan, who stepped down this time, is mainly in charge of platform-based products, including Douyin, Watermelon Video, Toutiao, Tomato Novel, etc., while Zhang Lidong is mainly responsible for the commercialization team, including Byte's advertising business, Douyin e-commerce, Douyin life services, etc. 

However, according to people close to Douyin Group, as various businesses are approaching maturity, after Zhang Nan's resignation, ByteDance has no plans to set up a new CEO for Douyin. 

It is reported that the related business of Douyin Group is currently mainly responsible for 5 people, namely Han Shangyou, the head of Douyin business, Zhang Chao, the head of Tomato Novel and Toutiao, Wei Wenwen, the head of Douyin e-commerce, Pu Yanzi, the head of Douyin life service, and Zhao Xiuying, the head of Douyin advertising business.

It is worth mentioning that the above-mentioned leaders are all post-80s or post-90s, which means that the current younger generation of executives are in charge of many important businesses on Douyin, and they have all created many outstanding achievements in their positions. 

According to an internal letter released by ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo on the same day, Han Shangyou, as the president of Douyin, will continue to be responsible for the coordination of all Douyin-related main businesses, including Douyin e-commerce, Douyin life services and Douyin advertising business. 

Han Shangyou, the head of Douyin, and Zhang Chao, the head of Tomato Novel and Toutiao, will report to Zhang Lidong, the former is the chairman of ByteDance (China). In Liang Rubo's view, in the process of development, the company has always flexibly adjusted its organizational structure according to business needs to promote the better development of the business. 

Just a week before Zhang Nan resigned as CEO of Douyin, Liang Rubo, who is the CEO of Byte, delivered an internal speech at the 2024 annual all-staff meeting held by Byte to "always start a business and escape the gravity of mediocrity". 

In this sharing session, Liang Rubo mentioned the word "sense of crisis" many times, and Liang Rubo even included "strengthening the sense of crisis" in his annual goal. He admits that the biggest sense of crisis is the fear that bytes, as an organization, are becoming mediocre and unable to make new breakthroughs. 

As the company continues to grow, ByteDance's size and volume have also expanded rapidly, with the number of employees increasing from more than 10,000 to more than 100,000. In this regard, Liang Rubo said that he had heard feedback from many people, and now Byte "has all the diseases of large companies". 

Liang also talked about the trend of mediocrity in many organizations that he has observed, such as inefficiency, sluggishness, and low standards. "I'm talking about inefficient organizations, don't mistake me for saying that people don't work hard," Liang said, adding that it is precisely in a mediocre and inefficient organization that employees are more likely to feel tired, because even if they work hard, the final result is not ideal. 

In addition, Liang Rubo also mentioned at the meeting that the mediocrity and excellence of the organization will also be directly related to the company's attraction to excellent talents, "Excellent people will vote with their feet." They will look for more challenging things, higher rewards, and then they will look for colleagues who can motivate each other better. I think we have to aspire to create an environment where these people can vote for us." At this special time node, Liang Rubo made such a statement, which inevitably made the outside world a little more speculative. 

According to media reports, on the same day that Zhang Nan announced his resignation as CEO of Douyin, the media learned from a number of internal employees of ByteDance that the Spring Festival red envelopes issued by ByteDance this year were the same as last year, and they were discounted in half compared with previous years.

Last year, ByteDance issued an internal email saying that because the overall operation did not meet the target set at the beginning of the year, the Spring Festival red envelopes were halved. However, this year's byte's Spring Festival red envelopes still failed to return to the standards of previous years, and no internal notices were made. However, it is worth noting that ByteDance's departing employees could receive Spring Festival red envelopes before, and they are still distributed this year. 

Some voices believe that the resignation of the CEO of Douyin Group is superficially caused by Zhang Nan's courage to "restart" in situ, pursue love, and always start a business, but inside it is actually a new round of major changes in bytes, which may be related to the fact that Douyin's performance has not met the company's expectations. When the company exposed many problems, it was difficult for Zhang Nan, as the number one person in charge of Douyin, to "get out". 

Jianying becomes Zhang Nan's next stop, and Byte will actively explore AI

"I'm looking forward to dreaming with my friends, growing up with this era of AI, and drawing the fantasy world in my mind together. ” 

After Zhang Nan bids farewell to the CEO of Douyin Group, the next leg of his career will be Jianying, a video editing and editing app officially launched by Byte. It is reported that the object of Zhang Nan's follow-up report is still Liang Rubo, CEO of ByteDance.

After several years of development, Jianying's positioning has evolved from the original "easy to edit" to "all-round and easy to use", and it has also grown from a "novice editing tool" to a comprehensive video ecological tool covering individual creators, professional editors, enterprises, media organizations and other user groups. 

Compared with the scale of the "small workshop" at the beginning, Jianying has launched a product version suitable for all ends, from the beginning of the editing tool that only has mobile terminals, to the launch of Pad version, professional version, and web version, to achieve multi-terminal interoperability, creating the possibility of free creation in more scenarios. 

At the offline salon held on the fourth anniversary of Jianying last year, Yu Haiwen, who was the head of Jianying's operation at the time, also shared Jianying's plan for 2023, and in the future, on the basis of serving the commercial crowd and supporting creators, we will continue to deepen the operation model, use advanced technology to empower the main creation, and provide better industry services. 

Due to the rapid development of the short video industry in recent years, in order to further lower the creation threshold of video creators, improve the activity of video creators, and expand the team of video creators, video production tools have become the second battlefield for many video platforms in addition to the short video field. 

Radar Finance noticed that as far as the track of video production tools is concerned, in addition to ByteDance's Jianying, many Internet companies have also created their own video editing products, such as Kuaishou launched Kuaiying, and Station B also handed over the product Bijian. 

Although there are many products similar to Jianying on the market, Jianying still occupies a leading position in the same track. According to public information, as of 2021, Jianying's monthly active users have exceeded 100 million, making it the largest mobile video editing product in China. But no matter how high Jianying's status in the track is, it obviously cannot be compared with Douyin's current influence and commercial achievements. 

According to people close to Jianying, in fact, in the past year, Zhang Nan has tilted most of his energy to Jianying-related business. At the same time, Zhang Nan also personally led the team to seek a breakthrough in AI-assisted creation, and will soon launch an AI picture and video product in the future.

At the 2024 annual all-staff meeting held by ByteDance, Liang Rubo also mentioned that Byte has the problem of sluggishness, that is, it is not as sensitive to opportunities as startups. Liang Rubo also cited GPT as an example, "The semi-annual technical review at the company level did not start discussing GPT until 2023, and the large-scale model startups that did better in the industry were founded from 2018 to 2021." 

In addition, Liang Rubo also criticized Jianying at that time, and the automatic renewal function of Jianying was canceled by user feedback, although the company discovered this problem early on, but it took a year to solve it. In Liang's view, this is one of the manifestations of the company's sluggishness. 

Liang Rubo said that AI technology will greatly subvert content creation, and even produce new creation platforms, and we hope to actively explore, fully understand and grasp the opportunity. And letting the hero Zhang Nan lead the team to cut the film undoubtedly carries Liang Rubo's "ambition" of hoping that bytes will embrace AI at a faster speed.