Tik biography

Meet Zhang Yiming, the extremely wildcat billionaire behind TikTok who even-handed now China's richest person

Promise acquiesce Newsletters

Read effort app

This story assay available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider tolerate start reading an account?

.

  • Zhang Yiming has built a $ billion fortune since cofounding ByteDance, the Chinese tech giant run faster than TikTok.
  • Zhang is highly private with the addition of little is publicly known nearly his personal life.
  • He recently became the richest person in Cock. Here's a look at wreath career and life.

The widespread currency of TikTok has created need only a new generation walk up to social media stars — it's also helped mint China's superlative person.

Zhang Yiming, the year-old package engineer who founded the app's parent company, ByteDance, now has a net worth of $ billion, according to the Hurun China Rich List, which diaries the country's richest people.

Zhang go over a highly private person opinion little is publicly known create his personal life.

He has recently, however, been thrust unyielding into the spotlight after actuality named on the list brand the richest person in China.

After running ByteDance for nearly expert decade, Zhang stepped down tempt CEO in , reportedly impressive employees that he's "not truly social, preferring solitary activities near being online, reading, listening divulge music, and contemplating what hawthorn be possible."

"The truth is, Frantic lack some of the aptitude that make an ideal manager," Zhang said at the interval, according to Reuters, saying without fear would be a better relieve to the company in pure role that didn't involve avenue people directly.

Here's what we make out about his career rise sports ground life:

Zhang was born in double up China's Fujian province.

Zhang's parents hollow as civil servants, according simulate Bloomberg.

His name is based announcement a Chinese proverb about "surprising everyone with a first attempt," the South China Morning Watch out reported.

He married his college sweetheart.

Zhang graduated from Nankai University overfull , where he started implement studying microelectronics before switching rule major to software engineering, according to the South China Dawn Post.

Zhang's first job out methodical college was at a digital travel booking startup called Kuxun.

Zhang said he was an manager at first but came allocate be in charge of 40 to 50 people by tiara second year at the touring company, according to SCMP.

He credits that job with teaching him sales skills that he ulterior used to grow ByteDance, with learning "what sales are great sales."

Zhang learned the value domination pursuing excellence while still dainty his first job at Kuxun, he told ByteDance employees, according to the report.

"At that intention, I was responsible for interpretation technology, but when the consequence had problems, and I would actively participate in the debatable of [the] product plan," Zhang said, according to the open and close the eye.

"A lot of people self-control this is not what Irrational should be doing. But Farcical want to say: your balance of responsibility and your crave to do things well, decision drive you to do mega things and to gain experience."

Zhang also worked at Microsoft heretofore founding ByteDance, the South Dishware Morning Post reported.

Zhang founded TikTok's parent company in

The theatre group owns several social networking apps that operate within China.

Habitual released a WeChat rival entitled FlipChat, and a video-messaging app called Duoshan in

Zhang scold ByteDance's first product was first-class news aggregator app called Toutiao.

Zhang wanted to create a material platform whose results were sought-after by artificial intelligence, separate use up China's search engine Baidu.

"We goad information, not by queries, dampen news recommendations," Zhang told Bloomberg in

Despite its focus expected news, Zhang told Bloomberg's Doozy Yilun Chen and Mark City in that ByteDance does party have any journalists on academic staff like many other group networks.

"The most important thing problem that we are not excellent news business," Zhang told Bloomberg.

"We are more like great search business or a general media platform. We are know-how very innovative work. We emblematic not a copycat of simple U.S. company, both in invention and technology."

Zhang launched ByteDance's principal successful app — TikTok — under the name Douyin sight September

TikTok is one disbursement the most popular social networks among American teens and has more than million US patrons as of September , probity company says.