Zhang Yiming

Zhang Yiming is a Chinese Internet entrepreneur. He founded ByteDance in 2012, developed the news aggregator Toutiao and the video sharing platform Douyin. Zhang is one of the richest individuals in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$105 billion as of September 2026, according to Bloomberg. He is the first Chinese centibillionaire. On 4 November 2021, Zhang stepped down as CEO of ByteDance, completing a leadership handover announced in May 2021. According to Reuters, Zhang maintains over 50 percent of ByteDance's voting rights. The surging global popularity of TikTok made Zhang the richest man in China in 2024.

• Zhang Yiming is the main cofounder of Chinese tech giant ByteDance, best known for its insanely popular app TikTok, which has more than 1 billion users worldwide.
• It also has interests in e-commerce, education, gaming and news.
• Zhang stepped down as chairman of ByteDance in 2021 after resigning as CEO earlier that year, reportedly under pressure from the Chinese government.
• In 2026, the company ceded control of TikTok's U.S. business to a consortium of mostly American investors including Oracle and Silver Lake Management, which allowed the service to keep operating on U.S. soil.
• In China, the tech giant is making strides in AI. Its Doubao AI assistant counted 345 million monthly active users and became the country's most popular AI-powered app in the first quarter of 2026, according to intelligence service provider QuestMobile.