By Tracy Qu


The chief executive officer of Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, has stepped down to take on other responsibilities, a company spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Zhang Nan will remain at Douyin's parent company ByteDance, owner of short-video app TikTok, but will be responsible for video-editing product Jianying, a person with knowledge of the situation said.

She has been at ByteDance for ten years. In 2020, she took the newly created position of CEO of China operations as TikTok faced scrutiny from U.S. authorities over fears that it could be pressured by Beijing to share user data or use the app to spread propaganda. TikTok has repeatedly denied those claims.

Douyin is the most popular short-video app in China, followed by Kuaishou Technology's platform. As of June 2023, there were more than 1 billion users on short-video apps in China, according to data from China Internet Network Information Center.

The person familiar with the matter said Douyin isn't looking to replace the CEO in the near future.

Zhang joined ByteDance when it was still a startup and worked closely with founder Zhang Yiming, who stepped away from the day-to-day management of the company in 2021.

The two aren't related.

Last month, TikTok said it had spent $1.5 billion building an operation intended to convince U.S. lawmakers that its popular video-sharing app is safe.


Write to Tracy Qu at tracy.qu@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

02-07-24 0244ET