Zhang Yiming

Zhang Yeming
Born (1983-04-01) April 1, 1983 (age 41)
Longyan, Fujian, China
NationalityChina
Alma materNankai University (2001–2005) BEng
Occupations
Years active2006–present
Known forFounding and leading ByteDance, creating Douyin/TikTok
TitleFounder & Chairman of ByteDance
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinZhāng Yīmíng
IPA[ʈʂáŋ í.mǐŋ]
Websiteweibo.com/zhangyiming

Zhang Yeming (Chinese: 张一鸣; born April 1, 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). In March 2024, Zhang's personal wealth was estimated at US$41.2 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index (US$45.6 billion, according to Forbes),[1] making him the second-richest person in China, after Changpeng Zhao.[2][3] On November 4, 2021, Zhang stepped down as CEO of ByteDance,[4] completing a leadership handover announced in May 2021.[5] According to Reuters, Zhang maintains over 50 percent of ByteDance's voting rights.[6]

  1. ^ "Zhang Yiming". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-11-30.
  2. ^ "Bloomberg Billionaires Index: Zhang YiMing". Bloomberg. Retrieved October 5, 2022.
  3. ^ "The 28 youngest billionaires in tech, from Stripe's founders to the owner of TikTok". Business Insider. March 14, 2020. Archived from the original on March 15, 2020. Retrieved March 16, 2020.
  4. ^ Lin, Liza (2021-11-03). "TikTok Parent's Founder Zhang Yiming Steps Down as Chairman". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2021-11-04.
  5. ^ "ByteDance: TikTok's co-founder to step down as chief executive". BBC News. 2021-05-20.
  6. ^ Ye, Josh (March 15, 2024). "TikTok ban bill: What we know about Tiktok's Chinese owner". Reuters. Retrieved March 15, 2024.