Who Is Zhang Yiming? ByteDance Co-Founder Now China's Richest Person
While bearing Chinese citizenship, Zhang lives in Singapore. In 2024, ByteDance sued the Joe Biden-led US government over the law to potentially ban TikTok.
Zhang Yiming, the cofounder of Chinese tech giant ByteDance, has become China's richest person driven by investors' strong confidence in the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Forbes reported. ByteDance is best known for its insanely popular social media platform TikTok.
According to Forbes' Real-time Billionaires List, Zhang's net worth stands at a whopping $65.5 billion, making him the wealthiest person in China. He ranks as the 23rd richest person in the world.
The 41-year-old billionaire co-founded ByteDance in 2012. Considered a highly private person, Zhang also made headlines in October last year, when he emerged as the wealthiest Chinese. However, he was later overtaken by entrepreneur Zhong Shanshan.
Very little is known about Zhang’s personal life; however, professionally, he also takes keen interest in e-commerce, education, gaming and news. He stepped down as the chairman of ByteDance in 2021. The same year, he had stepped down as the company’s CEO due to pressure from the Chinese government, Forbes reported.
While bearing Chinese citizenship, Zhang lives in Singapore. In 2024, ByteDance sued the Joe Biden-led US government over the law to potentially ban TikTok.
ByteDance was started in Zhang’s four-bedroom Beijing apartment. Its social media platform, TikTok, credited with democratising the entertainment industry, has more than one billion users globally. The app is best known for triggering the influencer culture.
Born in 1983 in China's Fujian province, Zhang came from a humble family. His parents reportedly worked as civil servants. On the academic front, Zhang has an engineering degree from Nankai University, from where he graduated in 2005. Notably, he briefly studied microelectronics before switching his major to software engineering. After college, he joined a digital travel booking startup called Kuxun. He also briefly worked at Microsoft before co-founding ByteDance. In 2013, he was included in the Forbes China 30 Under 30 List.
ByteDance also operates other apps in China, including WeChat’s rival, FlipChat.
