Surpassed Even Perennial No. 1 Adani and Lee Jae-yong... 'This Man' Becomes Asia's Richest as His Fortune Soars Eightfold

TikTok Founder Zhang Yiming Becomes Asia's Richest Person
Net Worth Reaches $105.5 Billion, Up $40.3 Billion This Year Alone
More Than Eightfold Growth in Just Over Seven Years Since 2019

Zhang Yiming, the founder of China's ByteDance, which built the short-form video platform TikTok, has overtaken Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and SoftBank Chairman Masayoshi Son to become Asia's richest person. Despite the battle for technological supremacy and tensions between the United States and China, he has reached the top of Asia's wealth rankings with artificial intelligence (AI) and big-data algorithms as his weapons.

Zhang Yiming, founder of ByteDance. Reuters-Yonhap News.

Fortune Soars by $40.3 Billion This Year Alone... Quickly Surpasses Adani, Son and Lee

According to the Billionaires Index recently released by Bloomberg, Zhang Yiming, founder of ByteDance, the parent company of global short-form video platform TikTok, has become Asia's richest person, with a net worth of $105.5 billion (approximately 142.4 trillion won).

That figure is more than eight times the $13 billion Bloomberg reported when it first estimated Zhang's wealth in 2019, just over seven years ago. His fortune has surged by an additional $40.3 billion (approximately 54.4 trillion won) this year alone.

Zhang has pushed Gautam Adani, chairman of India's Adani Group, whose fortune is $104.8 billion, and Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, worth $81.3 billion, down to second and third place. The two Indian tycoons have held the top two spots in Asia's wealth rankings for years.

He has also left the fortunes of Tadashi Yanai, founder of Japan's Uniqlo, at $63.7 billion, and SoftBank Group Chairman Masayoshi Son, at $53.6 billion, far behind. Zhang's wealth is several times that of Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, who ranks 17th with $32.7 billion.

Going It Alone Without Big Tech's Backing... Rapid Growth Fueled by Algorithms

Born in 1983 in Longyan, Fujian Province, China, Zhang Yiming studied software engineering at Nankai University and began his career as a developer. In 2012, he co-founded ByteDance with his college roommate Liang Rubo, the company's current CEO.

At the time, in China's IT startup ecosystem, the conventional path to growth was to secure equity investment from major companies known as "BAT" -- Baidu (B), Alibaba (A) and Tencent (T) -- or to join their platforms. Zhang, however, chose to pursue an independent path instead.

The company's first major success was Jinri Toutiao, a personalized news recommendation app. Rather than hiring professional editors, ByteDance introduced its own algorithm to analyze users' responses and behavioral data in real time and deliver personalized content. The strategy paid off.

Building on this approach, ByteDance launched Douyin, a short-form video app known as the Chinese version of TikTok, in 2016. The company then introduced TikTok for overseas markets. The app resonated with Gen Z users around the world, who communicate primarily through video, helping ByteDance establish itself as a major global company.

Resigned as CEO at 38... Stepped Back from the Company's Helm

As the business rapidly expanded, Zhang stepped down as CEO in 2021 at the age of 38. "I feel that I lack the political acumen and organizational management skills required of an ideal manager," he said. He withdrew from the company's front line and handed the reins to his college classmate Liang Rubo.

However, Zhang has not completely distanced himself from ByteDance's influence. While reducing his exposure in the media and maintaining a low-profile approach to management, he has sought ways to address external risks, including U.S. measures targeting TikTok and U.S.-China technological competition.

ByteDance is now investing in AI development as its next major growth driver after TikTok. Zhang is also reportedly leading the development of next-generation AI platforms and future growth engines as the company's chief technology strategist.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.