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November 12, 2024 | 11:14 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The title of China's richest man is now held by TikTok co-founder Zhang Yiming. According to Forbes, his net worth exceeds $45 billion, underscoring his immense success. Although Zhang stepped down as CEO of ByteDance in 2021, he continues to play an influential role within the company.
As a visionary entrepreneur, he is known for his innovative approach to technology and digital content, and his globally recognized platform, TikTok, is used by over 1 billion users.
Citing Forbes, Global Leaders Today, and Business Insider, this article reveals Zhang Yiming's journey from his early journey to the rise of TikTok, Zhang's success has established him as China's richest man.
Who is Zhang Yiming?
Zhang Yiming is a Chinese entrepreneur and co-founder of ByteDance, the technology company best known for creating TikTok. Born on April 1, 1983 in Longyan, Fujian Province, Zhang Yiming is known for being extremely private. A 2005 graduate of Nankai University, he started out as a microelectronics student and switched to software engineering.
Zhang’s career journey
After graduation, Zhang Yiming started his career in a typical engineering role at a company called Kuxun. As one of the company's first employees, Zhang demonstrated exceptional skills and a strong work ethic, earning him the responsibility of managing a team of 40 to 50 people in his second year.
At that time, Zhang's contributions went far beyond technology and included discussions of product strategy. The experience helped him develop a well-rounded skill set that combined both technical expertise and leadership. These years of development became the foundation for his future success.
After his tenure at Kuxun, Zhang went on to work at Microsoft before launching his visionary digital empire at ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok.
The beginning of TikTok
In 2012, Zhang Yiming's entrepreneurial journey began with the founding of ByteDance. Starting from a modest 10 square meter apartment in Beijing, Zhang and his team dreamed of building a global company. Initially, their goal was to build a mobile platform for delivering useful news.
This vision led to the launch of Toutiao, an AI-powered news aggregation app. The platform quickly gained attention, with more than 13 million users in just two years. Despite this early success, Zhang and his team still saw ByteDance as more of a search or social media company than a news company.
In 2015, ByteDance launched its globally successful platform, TikTok, also known as Douyin in China. In a short period of time, the app became a huge hit, especially among young people, and rapidly gained popularity around the world.
TikTok's fame skyrocketed after ByteDance acquired Musical.ly, a Chinese social media platform, and integrated it with TikTok. As of September 2024, TikTok has over 1.04 billion active users worldwide, with an estimated valuation of $84 billion, based on Priori Data.
Forbes | Global Leaders Today | Business Insider
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