Zhang Yiming
Photo: CEO Magazine, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons9

Zhang Yiming

Chinese internet entrepreneur (born 1983)

Zhang Yiming (Chinese: 张一鸣; born 1 April 1983) is a Chinese Internet entrepreneur. He founded ByteDance in 2012, developed the news aggregator Toutiao and the video sharing platform Douyin (internationally known as TikTok).2

From Wikipedia’s article on Zhang Yiming (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Born Apr 1, 1983.1

Net worth $16.2B (as of 2019, per The World's Billionaires).10 Richest people

About

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.

From Wikipedia’s article on Zhang Yiming, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Companies

Early life and education

  • Since 1919Nankai University3

Zhang was born on 1 April 1983, in Longyan, Fujian, China. His parents were civil servants and he was an only son. In 2001, he enrolled at Nankai University in Tianjin, where he majored in micro electronics engineering and software engineering. He graduated in 2005 with a BEng in computer engineering. He met his wife at university.

In February 2006, Zhang became the fifth employee and the first engineer at the travel website Kuxun. He was promoted to technical director a year later

In 2008, Zhang left Kuxun to work for Microsoft, but felt stifled by its corporate rules. He soon left Microsoft to join the startup Fanfou, which eventually failed. In 2009, when Expedia was about to acquire Kuxun, Zhang took over Kuxun's real estate search business and started 99fang.com, his first company. He quit the business three years later.

From Wikipedia’s article on Zhang Yiming (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Career

Occupation: entrepreneur, businessperson, computer science.5

Personal life

  • BornApr 1, 1983, Longyan6
  • CitizenshipPeople's Republic of China7

Sources

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    WikidataNet worth