How a Shy Engineer Built TikTok and Became China's Richest Person

CFP

AsianFin -- The viral rise of TikTok hasn't just created internet celebrities—it has also minted China's wealthiest individual: ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming, whose net worth now stands at $57.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The 41-year-old software engineer, known for his reclusive nature, has surpassed Tencent's Pony Ma ($56.5 billion) to claim the top spot, marking a symbolic shift in China's tech hierarchy—from social gaming to algorithm-driven content.

Born in 1983 in Fujian province to civil servant parents, Zhang's name derives from a Chinese proverb about "surprising everyone with a first attempt"—a fitting foreshadowing of his career. After graduating from prestigious Nankai University in 2005 with a degree in software engineering, he cut his teeth at a travel startup, Kuxun, where he learned sales and management despite his engineering role.

A brief stint at Microsoft followed before he launched ByteDance in 2012, initially as an AI-powered news aggregator (Toutiao). But his real breakthrough came in 2016 with Douyin (TikTok's Chinese counterpart), which redefined social media through addictive, algorithm-curated short videos.

Unlike other tech moguls, Zhang is famously intoverted. In 2021, he stepped down as CEO, admitting "I lack some skills that make an ideal manager … I prefer solitary activities like reading and thinking about possibilities."

Yet his quiet intensity drove ByteDance's culture. He once mandated executives to post on TikToks or do push-ups if they failed to get enough likes. His leadership, described as "soft-spoken yet charismatic" by AI expert Kai-Fu Lee, fused technical rigor with relentless ambition.

While traditional automakers remain stuck in price wars, ByteDance has already mastered the "trade-in plus livestream flash sale" strategy on Douyin. One domestic smartphone brand saw a 300% surge in conversion rates during a single livestream event in Douyin's trade-in zone—proof of the explosive synergy between policy incentives and the digital economy.

In 2024, Douyin's local services GMV surged 280% from the previous year, with homecare orders jumping 456%. One homecare company slashed customer acquisition costs from 300 yuan to 80 yuan per client after joining Douyin's group-buying system—a textbook case of traffic revenue plus scenario innovation.

ByteDance's "Local Goods on Douyin" initiative is unlocking explosive growth. A Guizhou tea cooperative saw monthly sales rocket from 3,000 yuan to 2 million yuan via Douyin's interest-based e-commerce—proving the power of "traffic democratization" in lower-tier markets. While traditional distributors still haggle over shelf fees, new brands are bypassing middlemen entirely via short videos to reach Main Street people in villages and small towns across China.

Meanwhile, its AI shopping assistant has improved customer service efficiency fivefold, while AI-generated short videos cut SMEs' customer acquisition costs by 70%. One apparel brand boosted its hit-rate prediction accuracy to 85% using AI trend forecasting, doubling inventory turnover.

Zhang envisioned ByteDance as "borderless as Google," but TikTok's Chinese ties have drawn fierce U.S. scrutiny. The U.S. Senate's April legislation presented TikTok with an ultimatum—sever ties with ByteDance by January 19 or face an American shutdown.

However, a presidential reprieve came just one day after the deadline, when U.S. President Donald Trump's executive order granted a 75-day extension, pushing the divestment deadline to April 5 and keeping the app temporarily operational in the U.S. market.

This regulatory drama has attracted potential suitors, including Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and investment personality Kevin O'Leary of "Shark Tank" fame, who have publicly expressed acquisition interest in the viral video platform.

Zhang has become a billionaire owing to the success of TikTok and ByteDance. ByteDance is the largest shareholder of TikTok, holding approximately 39.1% of the shares, and Sequoia Capital is the second-largest shareholder of TikTok, holding 12.8% of the shares.

Forbes first declared Zhang a billionaire in March 2018, estimating that Zhang was worth $4 billion.

On the annual Hurun China Rich List for 2024, he was listed as China's richest person, with an estimated net worth of $49.3 billion.