TikTok founder Zhang Yiming Becomes China’s Richest man

SHANGHAI: Zhang Yiming, the founder of ByteDance, has become China’s richest person with a personal wealth of $49.3 billion according to the annual rich list, although counterparts in real estate and renewables have fared less well. 

Zhang, who stepped down as chief executive of ByteDance in 2021, has become the 18th person to win the crown of China’s richest since the first issue of the Hurun China Rich List in 1999. He was surpassed by bottled water magnate Zhong Shanshan, who slid to second place as his fortune fell 24 percent to $47.9 billion. 

ByteDance’s global revenue was reported to have risen 30 percent last year to $110 billion by Hurun, which helped push Zhang’s personal fortune up.

Third on the list was Pony Ma, the low-profile founder of Tencent, while PDD Holdings’ founder, Colin Huang, slipped into fourth place from third last year, even as his company’s discount-focused e-commerce platforms, Pinduoduo and Temu, continue to show healthy revenue growth. The number of billionaires on the list shrunk by 142, to 753, in the process of shrinking by more than a third of its 2021 peak. “China’s economy and stock markets had a tough year,” said Hurun Report chairman Rupert Hoogewerf.

The most dramatic declines in fortunes have been observed in the real estate sector in China, as noted by him, while consumer electronics is rapidly moving upward, with $5 billion added to his wealth this year by Xiaomi Lei Jun, the founder. It has not been an auspicious year for solar panel, lithium battery, and electric car producers,” as added by Hoogewerf, noting that the group’s list is also overseen by him.

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Who is Zhang Yiming? 

Mr Zhang resigned in 2021 as Chief executive and Chairman of ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok. He left the company at a time when other founders were being asked to step down in a clampdown by Chinese regulators on the tech economy. 

Mr Zhang was said back then to have left the CEO role because the day-to-day challenges were seen as a barrier to research and innovation. “I am not too social, prefer online or reading, listening to some music, and thinking of possibilities,” he was reported to have said in a memo, according to Reuters.

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