Liang Rubo

Liang Rubo is the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of ByteDance, the Beijing-based technology company known for digital platforms such as the short-video apps "TikTok" and "Douyin," the news aggregator "Jinri Toutiao," and the AI assistant "Doubao." Liang earned a degree in microelectronics from Nankai University, where he was a classmate of Zhang Yiming. His entrepreneurial career began with the co-founding of the vertical real estate search engine "Jiujiufang" alongside Zhang. Their app became one of China's most downloaded real estate applications.

Liang participated in the founding of ByteDance and served as head of product research and development, overseeing the technical development of core products including "Toutiao," the Toutiao Account platform, and the advertising system. He was the technical lead for the news app "Jinri Toutiao" and the short-form video platform "Douyin," which inspired TikTok. Liang also led the development of the office collaboration platform "Lark."

Before becoming CEO, Liang held several leadership roles at ByteDance, including head of research and development, Lark and efficiency engineering, and human resources and management. He succeeded Zhang Yiming as CEO, taking on responsibility for guiding ByteDance through regulatory changes and global expansion.

ByteDance, under Liang's leadership, has established itself as a global artificial intelligence company, advancing foundation models, consumer applications, and generative media. The AI assistant "Doubao" has reached 345 million monthly active users in China. ByteDance has also introduced "Seed2.0" and "Seed2.1," multimodal model families designed for complex workflows, document and video analysis, and end-to-end coding tasks. TIME included Liang in its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence.

Liang has maintained a low public profile but has become more visible within ByteDance, using internal communications to emphasize the importance of generative AI and large language models. Liang and Zhang Yiming jointly donated 200 million yuan (approximately $28 million) to Nankai University to support mathematical research and talent development. Under Liang's leadership, ByteDance has evolved from a social media company into a leading artificial intelligence enterprise.