Zhang Yiming
Zhang Yiming | |||||||||
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张一鸣 | |||||||||
Zhang in 2021 | |||||||||
| Born | 1 April 1984 Longyan Area, Fujian, China | ||||||||
| Nationality | Chinese | ||||||||
| Education | Nankai University (BEng) | ||||||||
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 2006–present | ||||||||
| Known for | Founding and leading ByteDance, creating Douyin/TikTok | ||||||||
| Title | Founder & Chairman of ByteDance | ||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 张一鸣 | ||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 張一鳴 | ||||||||
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| Website | weibo | ||||||||
Zhang Yiming (Chinese: 张一鸣; born 1 April 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). Zhang is one of the richest individuals in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$65.5 billion as of May 2025, according to Forbes . On 4 November 2021, Zhang stepped down as CEO of ByteDance, completing a leadership handover announced in May 2021. According to Reuters, Zhang maintains over 50 percent of ByteDance's voting rights. The surging global popularity of TikTok made Zhang the richest man in China in 2024.