'TikTok Awesome' ByteDance Founder, China's richest man

Zhang Yiming (41), the founder of ByteDance, which was a big success with TikTok, a short video sharing platform, has become China's richest man, AP and other foreign media reported on the 29th local time.

According to the Hurun Institute (胡潤), the Chinese version of Forbes cited by foreign media, Zhang Yiming's personal wealth was valued at $49.3 billion (about 68 trillion won), ranking No. 1 in China's wealth list this year.

He became the first richest man in the '80s, a reference to those born in the 1980s.

Hurun analyzed that the popularity of TikTok worldwide has increased Zhang Yiming's wealth by $14.7 billion over the past year.

TikTok has 200 million users in the U.S. alone, with ByteDance's global sales up 30% last year.

On the other hand, Zhongshan ($47.63 billion), the founder of 農夫 泉, China's largest bottled water producer, fell from first to second last year.

In March, after criticism was raised that the picture of the product wrapper was similar to the shape of the main gate of Yasukuni shrine, Japan, it was largely affected by the boycott of patriotic netizens.

IT giant Tencent founder Ma Hua Teng ($44.12 billion) and e-commerce company Temu parent Pinduoduo founder Hwang Jung ($34.32 billion) ranked third and fourth, respectively.

Based on a Hurun report, the Financial Times (FT) said Chinese billionaires have disappeared by more than a third in the past three years due to Chinese government regulations, sluggish economy and stock market downturn.

After peaking at 1,185 in 2021, it fell to 753 this year, down 36% in the period.

The FT also pointed out that existing businessmen, including real estate developers, are quickly giving way to emerging wealthy people such as Zhang Yiming on the list of China's rich.