Zhang Yiming, the founder of TikTok parent company ByteDance Ltd., has become China’s wealthiest individual, surpassing bottled water mogul Zhong Shanshan and Tencent founder Ma Huateng.
His net worth now stands at $57.5 billion, making him the third-richest person in Asia, behind Indian billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Zhang’s fortune has surged by more than $10 billion, fueled by ByteDance’s stock repurchase program valuing the company at $312 billion, along with investment valuations from BlackRock Inc., Fidelity Investments, and T. Rowe Price Group Inc., which placed ByteDance’s average valuation at $365 billion.
Despite his rising wealth, Zhang has faced significant challenges, including ongoing regulatory scrutiny in the U.S. and China. TikTok’s future in the U.S. remains uncertain, with President Donald Trump extending the deadline for ByteDance to divest its U.S. operations by 75 days, setting a new cutoff of April 5. Failure to find a buyer could lead to a ban.
In China, ByteDance has positioned itself as a leader in artificial intelligence. Its AI chatbot, Doubao, has amassed 75 million active users, and its vision-understanding model is claimed to be 85% more cost-effective than industry standards.
Zhang, who now resides in Singapore, built his fortune solely through his 21% stake in ByteDance. He founded the company in 2012 in a small Beijing apartment, launching the Toutiao news app, which quickly gained traction.
In 2016, ByteDance introduced TikTok (Douyin in China), which became a global phenomenon, especially after acquiring and merging with Musical.ly in 2018.
Known for his innovation-driven approach, Zhang has often emphasized that ByteDance is not merely a news or social media company but an AI-powered platform with a global vision.
In 2021, he stepped down as ByteDance’s CEO and later relinquished his role as chairman, following a pattern seen among other Chinese tech billionaires like Alibaba’s Jack Ma and PDD Holdings’ Colin Huang.
With ByteDance continuing to expand its AI capabilities and global reach, Zhang remains one of the most influential figures in the tech industry, despite no longer being at the helm of the company he founded.
