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TikTok's co-founder to step down as chief executive

bbc.com

11–20 of 94 posts

Re: TikTok's co-founder to step down as chief executive

#11
post #3
post #2

Wow, his comments were super honest as to his reasons for stepping down. It's refreshing in such a transition that it's not smothered in corporate speak written by lawyers or HR, or the common go-to of 'spending more time with family'.

> "The truth is, I lack some of the skills that make an ideal manager. I'm more interested in analysing organizational and market principles, and leveraging these theories to further reduce management work, rather than actually managing people," Mr Zhang wrote in a message on the company's website. "Similarly, I'm not very social, preferring solitary activities like being online, reading, listening to music, and cont…

I think it might be Chinese corporate talk. the politicians also talk like this sometimes. might be related to communism -- attempting to not be condescending to regular people. or maybe it's just Chinese culture that doesn't value empty talk and so he is forced to write something concrete but it doesn't mean this is the truth.

Re: TikTok's co-founder to step down as chief executive

#12
> "The truth is, I lack some of the skills that make an ideal manager. I'm more interested in analysing organizational and market principles, and leveraging these theories to further reduce management work, rather than actually managing people," Mr Zhang wrote in a message on the company's website. "Similarly, I'm not very social, preferring solitary activities like being online, reading, listening to music, and contemplating what may be possible," he added.

This fits the description of a Fierce Nerd as defined by Paul Graham. Little wonder he navigated the company to such great success.

[0]http://paulgraham.com/fn.html

Re: TikTok's co-founder to step down as chief executive

#13
post #3
post #2

Wow, his comments were super honest as to his reasons for stepping down. It's refreshing in such a transition that it's not smothered in corporate speak written by lawyers or HR, or the common go-to of 'spending more time with family'.

> "The truth is, I lack some of the skills that make an ideal manager. I'm more interested in analysing organizational and market principles, and leveraging these theories to further reduce management work, rather than actually managing people," Mr Zhang wrote in a message on the company's website. "Similarly, I'm not very social, preferring solitary activities like being online, reading, listening to music, and cont…

> leveraging these theories to further reduce management work, rather than actually managing people

somehow I think this is what a CEO should be doing, and then letting managers do the people management.

CEO should be strategy, not keeping Karen in accounting dept. happy.

Too many companies just continue doing whatever they have been doing for a long time, without any ability at reconsidering if this still fits the market.

Re: TikTok's co-founder to step down as chief executive

#14

For those unfamiliar with ByteDance, they’re actually much bigger than you might think, and have become serious competitors to China’s leading tech companies (BATX + H) [1]: - Baidu - Alibaba - Tencent - Xiaomi - Huawei You can see how their offering compare in this Big Tech Spreadsheet [2]. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BATX [2] https://miguelrochefort.com/blog/big-tech

TikTok will surpass Facebook as the most engaging social media app in the US with fewer DAUs than Facebook. It's already at par [1] according to some data. ByteDance might become the most valuable company in the world, not just in China. [1] https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak/status/1394704798591590401?s...

That's a prediction and a half. It would only become the most valuable company if the stock market goes crazy about it, as it stands, one does not become that with just a mobile app / social network.

Re: TikTok's co-founder to step down as chief executive

#15

For those unfamiliar with ByteDance, they’re actually much bigger than you might think, and have become serious competitors to China’s leading tech companies (BATX + H) [1]: - Baidu - Alibaba - Tencent - Xiaomi - Huawei You can see how their offering compare in this Big Tech Spreadsheet [2]. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BATX [2] https://miguelrochefort.com/blog/big-tech

Nobody use BAT anymore, Baidu has been a 2nd tier company for at least 5 years and nobody refer it in the acronyms. The top 5 are Alibaba, Tencent, Ant Financial, ByteDance, Meituan or PDD

Re: TikTok's co-founder to step down as chief executive

#16
post #15

For those unfamiliar with ByteDance, they’re actually much bigger than you might think, and have become serious competitors to China’s leading tech companies (BATX + H) [1]: - Baidu - Alibaba - Tencent - Xiaomi - Huawei You can see how their offering compare in this Big Tech Spreadsheet [2]. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BATX [2] https://miguelrochefort.com/blog/big-tech

Nobody use BAT anymore, Baidu has been a 2nd tier company for at least 5 years and nobody refer it in the acronyms. The top 5 are Alibaba, Tencent, Ant Financial, ByteDance, Meituan or PDD

seen any good analyses of what happened at Baidu? how do you screw up being "The Google of China"?

(I know "X of China" is never actually true but work with me)

Re: TikTok's co-founder to step down as chief executive

#18

For those unfamiliar with ByteDance, they’re actually much bigger than you might think, and have become serious competitors to China’s leading tech companies (BATX + H) [1]: - Baidu - Alibaba - Tencent - Xiaomi - Huawei You can see how their offering compare in this Big Tech Spreadsheet [2]. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BATX [2] https://miguelrochefort.com/blog/big-tech

Where did you get this data from?

Re: TikTok's co-founder to step down as chief executive

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TikTok will surpass Facebook as the most engaging social media app in the US with fewer DAUs than Facebook. It's already at par [1] according to some data. ByteDance might become the most valuable company in the world, not just in China. [1] https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak/status/1394704798591590401?s...

That's a prediction and a half. It would only become the most valuable company if the stock market goes crazy about it, as it stands, one does not become that with just a mobile app / social network.

Still, it will be an incredibly valuable company, especially as the Chinese middle class comes into wealth.

Re: TikTok's co-founder to step down as chief executive

#20
post #16
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody use BAT anymore, Baidu has been a 2nd tier company for at least 5 years and nobody refer it in the acronyms. The top 5 are Alibaba, Tencent, Ant Financial, ByteDance, Meituan or PDD

seen any good analyses of what happened at Baidu? how do you screw up being "The Google of China"? (I know "X of China" is never actually true but work with me)

Google is still relevant because it controls Android and Chrome. Baidu never gets lucky in building that and be a dominant player. This makes it very passive in the mobile internet market competition.
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