This week, the founder of the Chinese company ByteDance, which developed the service TikTok, announced his resignation as CEO. Zhang Yiming will hand over the reins to his fellow student Rubo Liang, who is now in charge of the company’s HR policy.

According to Bloomberg, citing sources close to the founder of ByteDance, Zhang Yiming decided to transfer the powers of the CEO to a trusted person due to the increased workload, wishing to free up more time. The Chinese billionaire will remain chairman of the board of directors of ByteDance, but his successor, Jubo Liang, whom they have known since college, will take over the bulk of the operational responsibilities.

Zhang Yiming also wants to focus on shaping the long-term development strategy of ByteDance and TikTok. In his address to employees, the founder of the company admitted that he had not achieved all of his goals as a CEO, but his departure from this post would give him more time to address strategic issues. Zhang Yiming began delegating authority last year when he hired two managers to run the company’s Chinese business, and this month appointed a former Xiaomi CFO to be in charge of ByteDance’s American business.

The capitalization of ByteDance is estimated at $ 250 billion, which has already made Zhang Iming one of the richest people in the world. According to unofficial data, the company is now preparing to enter the public stock markets of the United States and Hong Kong. ByteDance reached $ 35 billion in revenue last year, doubling in size in just a year. The number of active users of the Chinese equivalent of TikTok last month rose to 680 million. The rapid growth of the business forced the founder of the company to switch to delegation of authority, and now he will have more time to determine the strategic direction.