ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming becomes China’s richest person; know his early life, net worth and more

ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming has recently joined the list of China's richest individuals according to Forbes, with an estimated net value of $65.5 billion. This comes after his 21% ownership of ByteDance, the parent company of social media app TikTok. Zhang started in 2012 when he started ByteDance from a small four-bedroom apartment in Beijing. His vision was to use machine learning and big data to personalize content for users, revolutionizing the way people consume information worldwide.

Zhang entered the tech sphere after completing his studies at Nankai University, where he majored in software engineering. Through college life, he earned some extra money repairing computers and building websites. Zhang had a brief stay at Microsoft, and soon it dawned on him that his interest lay elsewhere than in business life as he quit after six months. His entrepreneurial journey included starting a real estate website before ultimately establishing ByteDance.

ByteDance was born when Zhang saw fewer individuals reading newspapers during their subway rides and saw the increased importance of mobile phones as a means of accessing information. He had a vision of a platform where individuals could view personally chosen content based on their interest. ByteDance was a small Beijing startup, but with Zhang's passion, it grew exponentially, giving birth to TikTok, one of the world's most popular apps.
Though vastly successful, Zhang is an introverted person. In a 2021 company memo to his staff, he freely confessed that he didn't possess the standard attributes of an effective manager. Zhang clarified he was more interested in understanding market trends and organizational theory than human beings. His isolationism has turned him into the embodiment of an outsider, and he only makes appearances publicly and engages in social functions with difficulty.
Most of Zhang's fortune is derived from his holding in ByteDance, the proprietor of TikTok. Through 2024, ByteDance has grown to be a tech behemoth, touching every nook and cranny of the world. Even though Zhang is no longer running the day-to-day business of the company, he continues to shape ByteDance's destiny through his grasp of AI strategy.

As of 2024, Zhang Yiming's net worth of $65.5 billion places him among the world's richest individuals. Although he has surpassed other Chinese billionaires such as Zhong Shanshan and Ma Huateng, Zhang's net worth is still behind the wealth of people such as Mukesh Ambani, Adani, and global tech tycoons such as Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates. Despite being fabulously wealthy, Zhang remains an introvert personality, working behind the scenes and continuing to shape the tech world.

ByteDance has made heavy investments in AI research and development under Zhang, with the goal of attaining artificial general intelligence (AGI). The vision is to develop AI systems that are as good as or even better than human intelligence. ByteDance has aggressively poached the best AI talent, with Zhang himself backing generous compensation packages to lure top industry talent.
Zhang has long aspired to make ByteDance as globally influential as Google. He has been optimistic and circumspect, in interviews, regarding the difficulty of spreading Chinese businesses overseas. The success of ByteDance with TikTok has already overcome most obstacles, however, enabling the company to access consumers around the world and redefine the digital media environment.