Meet Zhang Yiming, the extremely private billionaire behind TikTok who is now China’s richest person

• Zhang Yiming has built a $49.3 billion fortune since cofounding ByteDance, the Chinese tech giant behind TikTok.
• Zhang is highly private and little is publicly known about his personal life.
• He recently became the richest person in China. Here’s a look at his career and life.

The widespread popularity of TikTok has created not only a new generation of social media stars — it’s also helped mint China’s wealthiest person.

Zhang Yiming, the 41-year-old software engineer who founded the app’s parent company, ByteDance, now has a net worth of $49.3 billion, according to the 2024 Hurun China Rich List, which documents the country’s richest people.

Zhang is a highly private person and little is publicly known about his personal life. He has recently, however, been thrust back into the spotlight after being named on the list as the richest person in China.

After running ByteDance for nearly a decade, Zhang stepped down as CEO in 2021, reportedly telling employees that he’s “not very social, preferring solitary activities like being online, reading, listening to music, and contemplating what may be possible.”

“The truth is, I lack some of the skills that make an ideal manager,” Zhang said at the time, according to Reuters, saying he would be a better help to the company in a role that didn’t involve managing people directly.

Here’s what we know about his career rise and life: