TikTok founder now China’s wealthiest person

TikTok founder Zhang Yiming is now China’s wealthiest person with a net wealth of USD 49.3 billion. This was reported by Hurun Research Institute’s China Rich List for 2024 12.

Zhang Yiming

He is the 18th person to hold the title of China’s richest individual since 1999 when the list was made. The person who previously held this title for three years was Zhong Shanshan, founder of bottled water company Nongfu Spring.

Zhang co-founded ByteDance, who also owns Toutiao and Douyin. The company has a valuation of USD 225 billion, with USD 110 billion in revenue having just come from 2023. According to Wedbush Securities, TikTok itself is worth USD 100 billion of ByteDance’s value.

TikTok has at least doubled (or tripled) the app’s worth because of its algorithm. Its popularity continues to grow even in the face of a possible ban in the United States. The US government believes TikTok is a national security risk because of China’s potential to access American users’ data.

Things considered, Zhang still stands as one of China’s richest men even if he stepped down as ByteDance CEO in 2021. Notably though, he still owns roughly 20% of the company.

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