ByteDance CEO Highlights Concerns over Mediocrity and Lack of Breakthroughs

The chief executive officer of ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, has expressed concerns over the company's lack of breakthroughs and growing mediocrity.

During the annual staff meeting, Rubo Liang, co-founder and CEO of ByteDance, outlined the company's goals for the year. These include strengthening the sense of crisis at the organizational management level, fostering an entrepreneurial spirit, promoting social responsibility, and focusing on key business areas.

Liang highlighted the organizational mediocrity at ByteDance, characterized by inefficiency, sluggishness, and low standards in the face of intense competition. As an example, he mentioned how a task initially estimated to take 1,000 days was completed in just 15 days by an ex-employee at his new company.

Furthermore, Liang pointed out that ByteDance has been slow in recognizing and seizing opportunities compared to startups. While well-performing large language model startups were established as early as 2018, ByteDance only started discussing GPT last year.

ByteDance experienced significant growth between 2019 and 2021, with its staff increasing from 10,000 to over 100,000. However, this expansion led to a 30 percent drop in efficiency compared to other teams, indicating the need to raise standards moving forward.

Founded in 2012, ByteDance currently owns TikTok, a popular social media platform with nearly 1 billion monthly active users worldwide.