The co-founder of ByteDance, parent company of Chinese social media giant TikTok, has become the wealthiest man in China, amassing a fortune of $49.3 billion. Zhang Yiming saw a 43 percent increase in his fortune from the previous year. The 41-year-old stepped down from managing the company in 2021 but retains an ownership stake of approximately 20 percent.
ByteDance’s TikTok claims independence from Chinese Communist Party (CCP) state influence, but the United States remains wary. It plans to ban TikTok by January 2025 unless ByteDance divests from it.