Zhang Yiming Becomes China’s Richest Person

Zhang Yiming, 41, the founder of TikTok’s parent firm, ByteDance, has been named China’s richest person by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

With his current net worth of $57.5 billion, he has surpassed Tencent chairman Ma Huateng and bottled water tycoon Zhong Shanshan.

This wealth spike follows Bloomberg’s analysis of values from large investors such as BlackRock, Fidelity Investments, and T. Rowe Price Group.

ByteDance’s recent move to repurchase employee stock at a $312 billion value played a big role in Zhang’s financial rise.

The company’s average worth surpassed $365 billion, confirming Zhang’s place among the world’s tech elite.

Zhang now ranks as Asia’s third richest individual, behind only Indian billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani.

While Bloomberg places Zhang atop China’s wealth hierarchy, the Hurun China Rich List had already crowned him in October last year.

The Forbes Billionaires List estimates Zhang’s wealth even higher at approximately $65.5 billion, highlighting his dramatic financial rise.

In order to focus on long-term strategy, business culture, and social responsibility, Zhang stepped down as CEO of ByteDance in 2021.

His impressive wealth stems solely from his 21% ownership stake in ByteDance, the global tech giant behind TikTok’s billion-plus users.

Zhang’s ascension indicates a comeback from severe difficulties, including the prospect of a TikTok ban in the United States.

ByteDance has emerged as a key player in China’s artificial intelligence sector with its AI chatbot Doubao attracting 75 million regular users.

Journey to Tech Dominance

Zhang began his career as an engineer at tourism search site Kuxun.com before launching his first venture, property platform 99fang.com.

From a small Beijing apartment, he established ByteDance in 2012. Within two years, the Toutiao news app had 13 million daily users.

His vision was creating an AI-driven platform distinct from China’s dominant search engine Baidu, not merely copying American companies.

When ByteDance first introduced TikTok (also known as Douyin in China) in 2016, it had a small following before becoming highly famous among young people.

In 2018, the company paid over $800 million to acquire Musical.ly, a Chinese social media network that it later combined with TikTok.

Since then, ByteDance has grown into a diverse digital empire with a wide range of popular applications, including celebrity news and video.

TikTok’s future in the United States remains unknown, as President Trump has extended ByteDance’s deadline to sell its U.S. operations until April 5.

This represents a significant shift in China’s wealth landscape, with technology entrepreneurs taking precedence over traditional sector leaders.

Pony Ma, co-founder of Tencent, was the richest person in 2023, with $43.7 billion, followed by Zhong Shanshan ($43.6 billion) and Zhang ($43 billion).

Zhang has now leapfrogged his competitors with Bloomberg listing Pony Ma in second place at $56.6 billion and Zhong Shanshan third at $54.1 billion.

Analysts remark that Zhang’s wealth trajectory reflects Chinese technology companies’ expanding global prominence as well as the rapid rise of the digital economy.

ByteDance’s diverse portfolio includes popular applications such as CapCut, Xigua Video, and Douyin, powering the company’s $400+ billion valuation as of January 2025.