抖音和今日头条相继“换帅”，字节跳动迎来一轮人事调整 – 36Kr
What happened: Bytedance has shifted leadership at Douyin and Jinri Toutiao in an attempt to boost growth, 36Kr reported. The co-founder of Musical.ly, Zhu Jun, now leads Douyin and TikTok. Ren Lifeng, former head of Douyin and one of the earliest members of its team, now reports to Zhu. Bytedance’s recommendation algorithm expert Zhu Wenjia was promoted to lead the Jinri Toutiao app, reporting to the CEO of the Jinri Toutiao company.
Why it’s important: The personnel reshuffle is likely a move by Bytedance to target the overseas market and seek new areas of growth as flagship apps such as Jinri Toutiao decelerate. Bytedance will step up marketing and monetization in its existing overseas markets with TikTok, according to 36Kr citing people with knowledge of the matter, and the founder of Musical.ly could facilitate such a process. Putting a technical expert at the helm may also potentially help algorithm-driven Jinri Toutiao with new avenues of growth.