TikTok Reshuffles Its Organization, CEO Shou Zi Chew Promotes Young Executive
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TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has announced another major restructuring, promoting 32-year-old executive Zhi Ying and merging the platform’s operations team into its product division — a move signaling TikTok’s push for tighter integration between product innovation and user growth.
October 22 (Beijing time) — TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew announced another major internal restructuring, promoting 32-year-old executive Zhi Ying and further consolidating the company’s product and operations teams.
In a company-wide message sent Tuesday evening, Chew said TikTok’s operations department — previously responsible for content, creator monetization, and user growth — will now report to the product division. The move aligns operational strategy more closely with product development.
This marks the latest in a series of structural shifts following Chew’s August 1 announcement, when he appointed Zhi Ying to lead TikTok’s Platform Responsibility and Live Operations teams.
Born in 1992, Zhi graduated from Tianjin University in 2014 and began her career at PwC and Uber before joining ByteDance in 2016 as one of Douyin’s early team members. Known for her strong execution and assertive management style, she was once a trusted lieutenant of former Douyin CEO Zhang Nan.
Zhi’s rise within ByteDance has been rapid:
- In November 2021, she took over Douyin’s product division, and by year-end was also leading its operations team.
- In early 2022, she became the independent head of Xigua Video, expanding her management scope.
- By April 2022, she began overseeing Star Chart, ByteDance’s creator monetization business.
- In February 2023, she transitioned to TikTok, taking charge of product development and strategy.
On August 1, 2025, Chew announced another reorganization, merging TikTok’s Core Product and Trust & Safety Product teams into a new Platform Responsibility group led by Zhi Ying.
This latest adjustment — moving operations under the product umbrella — is seen internally as a continuation of that realignment, positioning Zhi as one of TikTok’s most influential young executives and signaling TikTok’s push to streamline product-led growth and user ecosystem management.
