TikTok Parent Co-Founder Tops China Rich List

The co-founder of TikTok parent company ByteDance has risen to the the top of a list of China’s wealthiest people, as TikTok’s popularity drives revenues.

Zhang Yiming’s wealth is now valued at $49.3 billion (£38bn), up 43 percent from last year, according to the Hurun Research Institute’s China Rich List.

He topped the list for the first time this year, after ByteDance saw its profits grow 60 percent last year on revenues of $110bn.

Zhang, 41, stepped down from his chief executive role at the company in 2021, but is believed to own about 20 percent of ByteDance.

‘Dynamism’

Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman of Hurun and chief researcher of the report, said China had seen 18 different people topping the list in the past 26 years, compared to only four for the US during the same period – Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.

“This gives an indication of some of the dynamism in the Chinese economy,” he said.

Zhang is the first individual born in the 1980s to top the list.

The rise in fortunes for ByteDance and Zhang comes at a time when China’s economy is facing sluggish growth, meaning that many of those on the list saw their holdings plunge over the past year.

The total wealth of the people on the list amounted to $3tn, down 10 percent from the previous year, while the number of billionaires in US dollars shrank by 142 to 753.

Hurun has counted 1,185 billionaires in the country since 2021.

Only about 30 percent of the people on the list saw their holdings rise, with the rest experiencing a decline.

Economic woes

“The Hurun China Rich List has shrunk for an unprecedented third year running, as China’s economy and stock markets had a difficult year,” Hoogewerf said.

“The number of individuals on the list was down by 12% in the past year to just under 1100 individuals and 25% from the high point of 2021.”

ByteDance and TikTok are facing troubles of their own, with the US pressuring the Chinese parent firm to sell its US TikTok operations or face a ban.

Third on the list was Tencent founder Pony Ma, with holdings of $44.4bn, as the tech conglomerate and gaming giant saw its revenues rise.

Solar panel, lithium battery and EV makers had a challenging year as competition intensified, leading to overproduction, while the threat of tariffs added uncertainty to the picture, Hoogewerf said.

“Solar panel makers saw their wealth down as much as 80% from the 2021 peak, whilst battery and EV makers were down by half and a quarter respectively,” he said.