Meet Zhang Yiming, the extremely private billionaire behind TikTok who is now China's richest person

Thanks for signing up!

Access your favourite topics successful a personalized provender while you're connected nan go.

Zhang was calved successful 1983 successful China's Fujian province.

Zhang's parents worked arsenic civilian servants, according to Bloomberg.

His sanction is based connected a Chinese proverb astir "surprising everyone pinch a first attempt," nan South China Morning Post reported.

He joined his assemblage sweetheart.

Zhang graduated from Nankai University successful 2005, wherever he started disconnected studying microelectronics earlier switching his awesome to package engineering, according to nan South China Morning Post.

Zhang's first occupation retired of assemblage was astatine a integer recreation booking startup called Kuxun.

Zhang said he was an technologist astatine first but came to beryllium successful complaint of 40 to 50 group by his 2nd twelvemonth astatine nan company, according to SCMP. He credits that occupation pinch school him income skills that he later utilized to turn ByteDance, including learning "what income are bully sales."

Zhang learned nan worth of pursuing excellence while still successful his first occupation astatine Kuxun, he told ByteDance employees, according to nan report.

"At that time, I was responsible for nan technology, but erstwhile nan merchandise had problems, and I would actively participate successful nan chat of [the] merchandise plan," Zhang said, according to nan newspaper. "A batch of group opportunity this is not what I should beryllium doing. But I want to say: your consciousness of work and your desire to do things well, will thrust you to do much things and to summation experience."

Zhang besides worked astatine Microsoft earlier founding ByteDance, nan South China Morning Post reported.

Zhang founded TikTok's genitor institution successful 2012.

The institution owns respective societal networking apps that run wrong China. It released a WeChat rival called FlipChat, and a video-messaging app called Duoshan successful 2019.

Zhang and ByteDance's first merchandise was a news aggregator app called Toutiao.

Zhang wanted to create a news level whose results were powered by artificial intelligence, abstracted from China's hunt motor Baidu.

"We push information, not by queries, by news recommendations," Zhang told Bloomberg successful 2017.

Despite its attraction connected news, Zhang told Bloomberg's Lulu Yilun Chen and Mark Bergen successful 2017 that ByteDance does not person immoderate journalists connected its staff for illustration galore different societal networks.

"The astir important point is that we are not a news business," Zhang told Bloomberg. "We are much for illustration a hunt business aliases a societal media platform. We are doing very innovative work. We are not a copycat of a U.S. company, some successful merchandise and technology."

Zhang launched ByteDance's astir successful app — TikTok — nether nan sanction Douyin successful September 2016.

TikTok is 1 of nan astir celebrated societal networks among American teens and has much than 170 cardinal US users arsenic of September 2024, nan institution says.

Zhang was known for making his ain TikToks — and requiring his elder labor to do truthful arsenic well.

"For a very agelong time, I was simply watching TikTok videos without making immoderate of them myself, because it's a merchandise chiefly for young people," Zhang said, according to nan South China Morning Post. "But later connected we made it compulsory for each guidance squad members to make their ain TikTok videos, and they must triumph a definite number of 'likes'. Otherwise, they person to do push-ups. It was a large measurement for me."

Zhang's activity style is "soft-spoken yet charismatic, logical yet passionate, young yet wise," according to Time Magazine's Kai-Fu Lee.

Zhang stepped down arsenic ByteDance's CEO successful 2021.

Zhang stepped down arsenic CEO successful 2021, saying that he "lack[s] immoderate of nan skills that make an perfect manager" and would beryllium a greater plus to nan institution successful a non-management role.

Zhang wants nan app to proceed to turn abroad, saying that he hopes his ByteDance will beryllium "as borderless arsenic Google," according to nan South China Morning Post.

"We must activity harder, we must besides beryllium much perfectionist," Zhang said, according to SCMP. "Just for illustration location was an world section of labour successful nan business age, successful today's accusation property there's besides an world section of labour. Chinese entrepreneurs must besides amended their ain capabilities arsenic they spell global," he said.

However, TikTok's ownership by a Chinese genitor institution and its increasing power successful nan US has raised concerns among US regulators.

TikTok is presently fighting a law that would require it to find a caller proprietor successful nan US by a January 19, 2025, deadline aliases beryllium banned successful nan country.

Zhang has go a billionaire owing to nan occurrence of TikTok and ByteDance much broadly.

Forbes first declared Zhang a billionaire successful March 2018, estimating that Zhang was worthy $4 billion.

On nan yearly Hurun China Rich List for 2024, he was listed arsenic nan country's richest person, pinch an estimated nett worthy of $49.3 billion.