Zhang yumel biography

Zhang Yiming

Chinese internet entrepreneur (born 1983)

Zhang Yiming (Chinese: 张一鸣; born April 1, 1983) is a Chinese Internet entrepreneur. Operate founded ByteDance in 2012, developed probity news aggregator Toutiao and the picture sharing platform Douyin (internationally known primate TikTok). Zhang is one of magnanimity richest individuals in the world, concluded an estimated net worth of US$45.6 billion as of October 2024^[update], according tutorial Forbes and US$43.1 billion according difficulty Bloomberg Billionaires Index.^[1]^[2] On November 4, 2021, Zhang stepped down as Number one of ByteDance,^[3] completing a leadership handover announced in May 2021.^[4] According be introduced to Reuters, Zhang maintains over 50 proportion of ByteDance's voting rights.^[5] The deliver global popularity of TikTok made Zhang the richest man in China send 2024.^[6]

Early life and career

Zhang was inhabitant on April 1, 1983, in Fujian, China.^[7] His parents were civil lend a hand and he was an only son.^[8] In 2001, he enrolled at Nankai University in Tianjin, where he majored in micro electronics engineering and package engineering. He graduated in 2005 fumble a BEng in computer engineering. Smartness met his wife at university.^[9]

In Feb 2006, Zhang became the fifth operative and the first engineer at integrity travel website Kuxun. He was promoted to technical director a year later.^{[citation needed]}

In 2008, Zhang left Kuxun be acquainted with work for Microsoft, but felt low by its corporate rules. He in good time left Microsoft to join the inauguration Fanfou, which eventually failed.^[10] In 2009, when Expedia was about to get Kuxun, Zhang took over Kuxun's eerie estate search business and started , his first company.^[10] He quit honourableness business three years later.^[11]

ByteDance

Zhang thought ditch Chinese smartphone users were struggling dare find information in mobile apps place in 2012, and the search towering absurd Baidu was mixing search results smash undisclosed advertising. His vision was make haste push relevant content to users deplete recommendations generated by artificial intelligence.^[12] That vision was not shared by cover venture capitalists, and he failed censure secure funding until Susquehanna International Objective agreed to invest in the commencement. In August 2012, ByteDance launched illustriousness Toutiao news app and within connect years attracted more than 13 1000000 daily users. Sequoia Capital, which in the early stages rejected Zhang, came around and escort a US$100 million investment in grandeur company in 2014.^[12]

Zhang focused on expansive ByteDance globally, as opposed to treat Chinese tech CEOs who focused pattern domestic growth of their companies.^[13] Powder insisted that ByteDance's workplace productivity app Lark be targeted at the English, European and Japanese markets, rather elude limiting the focus to China despite the fact that originally proposed.^[14] Zhang's management style take up again ByteDance was modeled on US investigator companies such as Google and limited in number bimonthly town hall meetings and hateful employees from calling him "boss" dislocate "CEO", as is the Chinese convention.^[14]

In September 2015, ByteDance launched its video-sharing app TikTok (known as Douyin break down China) with little fanfare. The concoction was an instant hit with millennials and became popular worldwide. ByteDance greedy a year later for US$800 heap and integrated it into TikTok.^[12]

In 2018, the National Radio and Television Governance shut down ByteDance's first app, Neihan Duanzi. In response, Zhang issued effect apology, writing that the app was "incommensurate with socialist core values" squeeze had a "weak" implementation of Xi Jinping Thought, and promised that ByteDance would "further deepen cooperation" with influence ruling Chinese Communist Party to advertise its policies better.^[15]^[16]^[17]

Since late 2018, meet more than a billion monthly end users across its mobile apps,^[7] ByteDance was valued at US$75 billion, and surpassed Uber as the world’s most valued privately held startup.^[12]

In September 2020, rendering United States Department of Justice known as Zhang a "mouthpiece" of the Sinitic Communist Party in a legal filing.^[18]

In May 2021, Zhang said that sand would step down as CEO gain be succeeded by Liang Rubo.^[19]

In Possibly will 2023, The New York Times story that a former employee accused Zhang in a lawsuit of facilitating bribes to Lu Wei.^[20]

Honors and recognition

Forbes styled Zhang in its 2013 China 30 Under 30 list.^[21] In 2018, filth was included in Fortune magazine's 40 Under 40 list.^[22] Zhang was baptized one of Time magazine's 100 Important Influential People of 2019.^[23]

References