China has a new wealthiest individual, and it’s none other than Zhang Yiming, the entrepreneur behind TikTok.
Zhang, 41, co-founded ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, and now tops the 2024 Hurun China Rich List, released on October 29. His fortune is estimated at $49.3 billion, according to Hurun Inc., a firm known for ranking the country’s wealthiest people.
His rise in wealth follows a 30% increase in ByteDance’s global revenue last year, reaching $110 billion. Since TikTok’s launch in May 2017, the app has gained massive worldwide popularity, particularly among young users, making it a defining platform of the social media era.
Zhang owns 20% of ByteDance, which he launched with his college roommate Liang Rubo in Beijing in 2012. Although he stepped down as CEO in 2021, he played a key role in building ByteDance into a Chinese tech giant. In addition to TikTok, ByteDance owns other popular apps like Toutiao, a news app, and Douyin, TikTok’s Chinese counterpart.
Zhang’s rise displaced “bottled water king” Zhong Shanshan from the top spot for the first time in three years, leaving Zhong in second place.