The surging world reputation of TikTok has seen the co-founder of its mum or dad firm, ByteDance, turn into China’s richest individual.
In keeping with a wealthy listing produced by the Hurun Research Institute, Zhang Yiming, is now value $49.3bn (£38bn) – 43% greater than in 2023.
The 41 yr outdated stepped down from his role in charge of the company in 2021, however is known to personal round 20% of the agency.
TikTok has turn into one of the widespread social media apps on the earth, regardless of deep considerations in some international locations about its ties to the Chinese language state.
Whereas each firms insist they’re impartial of the Chinese language authorities, the US intends to ban TikTok in January 2025 except ByteDance sells it.
Regardless of going through that intense strain within the US, ByteDance’s global profit increased by 60% last year, driving up Zhang Yiming’s private fortune.
“Zhang Yiming is the 18th new Quantity One we’ve had in China in simply 26 years,” mentioned head of Hurun Rupert Hoogewerf.
“The US, by comparability, has solely 4 Quantity Ones: Invoice Gates, Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.
“This offers a sign of a number of the dynamism within the Chinese language economic system.”
Mr Zhang is just not the one consultant of China’s enormous tech sector on the listing.
Pony Ma, boss of the tech conglomerate, Tencent, is third on the listing with an estimated private wealth amounting to £44.4bn.
However their fortunes should not simply defined by their firms successes – their rivals have made much less in a yr during which China’s economy has sputtered.
In truth, solely roughly 30% of the folks on the listing had a rise of their web value – the remainder noticed a decline.
“The Hurun China Wealthy Record has shrunk for an unprecedented third yr operating, as China’s economic system and inventory markets had a tough yr,” mentioned Mr Hoogewerf.
“The variety of people on the listing was down by 12% previously yr to only underneath 1100 people and 25% from the excessive level of 2021.”
He mentioned the info confirmed it had been a superb yr for smartphone producers similar to Xiaomi, whereas the inexperienced vitality market had stumbled.
“Photo voltaic panel, lithium battery and EV makers have had a difficult yr, as competitors intensified, resulting in a glut, and the specter of tariffs added to uncertainties,” he mentioned.
“Photo voltaic panel makers noticed their wealth down as a lot as 80% from the 2021 peak, while battery and EV makers had been down by half and 1 / 4 respectively.”