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The surging world recognition of TikTok has seen the co-founder of its mum or dad firm, ByteDance, turn into China’s richest individual.
According to a wealthy listing produced by the Hurun Research Institute, Zhang Yiming, is now price $49.3bn (£38bn) – 43% greater than in 2023.
The 41 yr outdated stepped down from his position in command of the corporate in 2021, however is known to personal round 20% of the agency.
TikTok has turn into some of the standard social media apps on the earth, regardless of deep issues in some nations about its ties to the Chinese state.
While each corporations insist they’re unbiased of the Chinese authorities, the US intends to ban TikTok in January 2025 except ByteDance sells it.
Despite dealing with that intense strain within the US, ByteDance’s world revenue elevated by 60% final yr, driving up Zhang Yiming’s private fortune.
“Zhang Yiming is the 18th new Number One we have now had in China in simply 26 years,” said head of Hurun Rupert Hoogewerf.
“The US, by comparability, has solely 4 Number Ones: Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.
“This gives an indication of some of the dynamism in the Chinese economy.”
Mr Zhang isn’t the one consultant of China’s enormous tech sector on the listing.
Pony Ma, boss of the tech conglomerate, Tencent, is third on the listing with an estimated private wealth amounting to £44.4bn.
But their fortunes aren’t simply defined by their corporations successes – their rivals have made much less in a yr by which China’s economic system has sputtered.
In reality, solely roughly 30% of the folks on the listing had a rise of their web price – the remaining noticed a decline.
“The Hurun China Rich List has shrunk for an unprecedented third yr operating, as China’s economic system and inventory markets had a troublesome yr,” said Mr Hoogewerf.
“The variety of people on the listing was down by 12% prior to now yr to only beneath 1100 people and 25% from the excessive level of 2021.”
He said the data showed it had been a good year for smartphone manufacturers such as Xiaomi, while the green energy market had stumbled.
“Solar panel, lithium battery and EV makers have had a challenging year, as competition intensified, leading to a glut, and the threat of tariffs added to uncertainties,” he mentioned.
“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.”
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