Who is Zhang Yiming, the creator of TikTok who became the richest man in China

Every second, millions of people around the world swipe on their mobile screens and consume content from TikTok the Chinese application that has opened up an important space among social networks the most popular.

And just as the number of users downloading the app has increased, the wealth of Zhan Yiming, the 41-year-old Chinese behind this giant through the parent technology company ByteDance .

Thanks to TikTok, Zhang became China’s richest person, with a net worth of $49.3 billion. according to the Hurun Research Institute .

But Little is known about this tycoon who has decided to remain in the shadows, he then becomes a mysterious and secret character for the press.

However, from certain interviews and speeches, we know some details about who he is and his strategy to have this colossal fortune.

Zhan Yiming is a 41-year-old Chinese man, co-founder of TikTok and, currentlythe richest man in his country.

As collected BBC World , Zhang grew up in Longyan, a city located in Fujian Province, China. He is the only son of two civil servants linked to the scientific community.

With this example, the tycoon wanted to initially devote himself to biology. However, his life took another direction and He decided to study software engineering at Nankai University in Tianjian.

To earn some money, he started repairing other students’ computers, in addition to creating websites for brands and companies.

Her first job after graduation was at a company specializing in airline ticket searches and a microblogging platform.

But soon, thanks to his abilities, He was hired by the giant Microsoft. However, his time with this company was brief: He only lasted six months because he said he was “bored.”

Already in 2012, he founded ByteDance, the Chinese technology giant, whose platforms are used by hundreds of millions of people around the world.

“People who achieve great things often maintain a completely normal state of mind. In other words, If you keep a normal mind, accept yourself as you are, and do well, you can often do things well. “Ordinary people can do extraordinary things.” » Zhang said in a speech.

How did Zhang get the idea to do ByteDance?

As reported BBC Worldit all started when the Chinese He realized that in the metro, we hardly read newspapers anymore. Soon everyone would be using their phones to get information.

SOit occurred to him to develop an application for cell phones that would distribute content and information to people, but with the difference that it would be according to the personal interests of each user.

On this basis, ByteDance launched the short video app Douyin, known as TikTok, in 2017. which quickly became the first Chinese application with global success.

But it didn’t stop there: the company decided to diversify into other digital areas, such as e-commerce, gaming and education.

According to the BBC, Zhang’s rise has been “meteoric.”

Howeverin 2021, the founding tycoon of TikTok resigned as CEO of ByteDance, motivated by “long-term initiatives”.

“The truth is that I lack some of the skills that make an ideal manager. » he said in a statement posted on his company’s website. “I’m more interested in analyzing organizational and market principles and leveraging those theories to further reduce management work, rather than actually managing people.”

In the Supreme Court of the United States , President Joe Biden signed a cease-and-desist order against ByteDance: The ultimatum they gave him was to sell Tiktok until January 2025, under penalty of seeing its use banned in the country.

This is because American parliamentarians have assured that The app poses “national security risks.”

And, as lawmakers argued, ByteDance could hand over the private information of the app’s more than 170 million users to the Chinese government.

“Congress is not acting to punish ByteDance, TikTok or any other specific company” said US Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell in April 2024.

On the contrary, the goal would be “Preventing foreign adversaries from conducting espionage, surveillance, malicious operations, harming vulnerable Americans, to our soldiers and our U.S. government personnel.

Despite the problems faced by TikTok and its parent company ByteDance, Zhang Yiming’s fortune has continued to grow: last year, the company’s overall profit increased by 60%.

According to Rupert Hoogewerf, director of the Hurun Research Institute which establishes the ranking of millionaires in China, “Zhang Yiming is the 18th new number one we have in China in just 26 years.”

But this is not only due to the success of TikTok around the world, but also because the Chinese economy is reportedly struggling. Its potential competitors recorded fewer profits than usual.

“Hurun’s list of China’s richest has declined for an unprecedented third consecutive year. “The Chinese economy and stock markets have had a difficult year,” Hoogewerf said. BBC World.

Additionally, only 30% of people on China’s richest list saw their net worth increase. The remaining 70% saw a decline.

According to the expert, technology companies have seen good numbers, but green energy companies, such as lithium batteries, electric vehicles and solar panels, have had a bad time.