Zhang Yiming
Founder of ByteDance and creator of TikTok.
Last updated
In 2024, Zhang Yiming became China's wealthiest individual, a status attributed to TikTok's worldwide success.[1][2]
Last updated 2026-09-30 from the source article.
Life and work
He founded ByteDance in March 2012 with Liang Rubo in a four-bedroom apartment.[3] Zhang Yiming was born in Longyan, Fujian, China, on 1 April 1983; both of his parents were civil servants.[4] A BEng in computer engineering was awarded to Zhang upon his graduation in 2005.[5] Zhang departed from Kuxun in 2008 for a position at Microsoft, but he found the company's corporate environment too restrictive.[6]
In 2009, Zhang assumed control of Kuxun's real estate search division and launched his initial venture, 99fang.com.[6]
What the cited sources add
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Zhang perceived in 2012 that Chinese mobile users struggled to find information they cared about on many apps.[7] Zhang thought he could do better than incumbents such as Baidu, which enjoyed a near-monopoly on search.[7] After falling flat with venture capitalists, Zhang secured investment from Susquehanna International Group.[7] The Hurun Research Institute stated that Zhang Yiming is worth $49.3 billion as of 2024.[2]
In a message to staff, Zhang stated his preference for studying organizational and market theories over personnel management.[8]
References
- Wikipedia, "Zhang Yiming" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/profiles/yiming-zhang/; "The Top 10 Richest People In The World (October 2024)", Forbes, 3 October 2024; "The 28 youngest billionaires in tech, from Stripe's founders to the owner of TikTok", Business Insider, March 14, 2020; Lin, "TikTok Parent's Founder Zhang Yiming Steps Down as Chairman", Wall Street Journal, 2021-11-03; "ByteDance: TikTok's co-founder to step down as chief executive", BBC News, 2021-05-20; Ye, "TikTok ban bill: What we know about Tiktok's Chinese owner", Reuters, March 15, 2024; en.wikipedia.org
- "TikTok founder Zhang Yiming becomes China's richest man", www.bbc.com, 29 October 2024. facts only, no text reused. bbc.com
- Wikipedia, "Zhang Yiming" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "ByteDance - Inspire Creativity, Enrich Life", ByteDance (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Zhang Yiming" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Feng, "World's Most Valuable Startup Is Home to a Complex Fortune", Bloomberg, 2019-03-23; "Bloomberg Billionaires Index", Bloomberg.com, 2023-11-18 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Zhang Yiming" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Rogers, "Meet Zhang Yiming, the secretive Chinese billionaire behind TikTok worth $44 billion who just stepped down as ByteDance CEO", Business Insider (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Zhang Yiming" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Gao Yang 高阳, "解码酷讯创业帮：张一鸣这些80后老板们的"黄埔军校"", The Economic Observer, 2006-09-03; Gao Yang 高阳, "解码酷讯创业帮：张一鸣这些80后老板们的"黄埔军校"", The Economic Observer, 2006-09-03; "Bloomberg Billionaires Index", Bloomberg.com, 2023-11-18 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Chen, "The unknown 35-year-old behind the world's most valuable startup", The Sydney Morning Herald, 2018-10-01. facts only, no text reused. smh.com.au
- "ByteDance: TikTok's co-founder to step down as chief executive", BBC News, 2021-05-20. facts only, no text reused. bbc.com
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Zhang Yiming (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Zhang Yiming (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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