Asia’s richest list has seen a major reshuffle. Zhang Yiming, founder of ByteDance, the parent company of the popular short-video platforms Douyin and TikTok, has made history by surpassing Indian tycoons. Zhang Yiming has now become Asia’s richest person, surpassing Indian industrialist Gautam Adani.
According to a Bloomberg report, 43-year-old Zhang Yiming’s net worth has skyrocketed. His net worth now exceeds USD 105 billion. Astonishingly, his wealth has increased by more than USD 12 billion (approximately Rs 1.15 lakh crore) in this month (September) alone. Yiming’s wealth was only USD 13 billion in March 2019, and has surged exponentially over the past few years.
Because ByteDance is an unlisted company, Bloomberg applies a 10 per cent discount to its total valuation when estimating Yiming’s wealth. Despite this, he has now become the richest person in China and across Asia.
Ongoing volatility in the Indian stock market and rising crude oil prices have pressured the valuations of Indian giants. Adani’s wealth was approximately USD 120 billion in June, but it later declined slightly.
Meanwhile, despite tough sanctions and controversies in the US and Europe, ByteDance’s global revenue and profits have increased significantly. Yiming’s rise to the top spot was fueled by higher valuations from major investment firms like BlackRock and Fidelity.
Who is Zhang Yiming?
Zhang Yiming is the co-founder of Chinese tech giant ByteDance, which gave the world global short-video platforms like TikTok. Yiming resigned as ByteDance CEO in 2021. Despite this, his significant stake in the company has driven a record increase in his wealth.
Compared with billionaires in infrastructure and energy, the wealth of tech entrepreneurs in AI and digital media is now growing faster. Zhang Yiming’s success demonstrates that the boom in the tech sector and artificial intelligence has shattered all previous records in the global wealth game.
AI is a real engine of income
ByteDance has launched a Doubao chatbot and a video-generation tool called Seedance, giving the company a new growth avenue beyond its short-video platform. According to experts, the social media data from billions of users gives ByteDance a major advantage in developing its AI models.
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