TikTok founder joins world’s richest with $60 bn fortune
SHARES OF BYTEDANCE TRADE IN THE PRIVATE MARKET AT A VALUATION OF MORE THAN $250 BILLION
Just last year, the world’s most valuable startup, ByteDance Ltd, was being squeezed from all sides.
The Trump administration wanted the Chinese firm, which owns the ubiquitous TikTok video-sharing platform, to get rid of assets. Beijing was cracking down on tech businesses, and India blacklisted some of its social-media apps.
For all the obstacles, ByteDance kept growing. Now its founder, 38- year- old Zhang Yiming, is among the world’s richest people—a distinction that lately has carried increased risks in China.
Shares of the company trade in the private market at a valuation of more than $250 billion, people familiar with the dealings have said. At that level,
Zhang, who owns about a quarter of ByteDance, could be worth more than $60 billion, placing him alongside Tencent
Holdings Ltd’s Pony Ma, bottled-water king Zhong Shanshan and members of the Walton and Koch families in the US, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
ByteDance, famous for its short- video apps and news aggregator Toutiao, more than doubled revenue last year after expanding beyond its core advertising business into areas such as e-commerce and online gaming.
It’s now weighing options for the initial public offering of some businesses.
“Zhang is someone who’s known for thinking long-term and not easily dissuaded by short-term setbacks,” said Ma Rui, partner at venture-capital firm Synaptic Ventures. “He is set on building an enduring, global business.”
During its last fundraising round, ByteDance reached a $180 billion valuation, a person with knowledge of the matter said. That’s up from $20 billion about three years ago, according to CB Insights. But in the private market, some investors recently were asking for the equivalent of a $350 billion valuation to part with their shares, people familiar have said.
The company’s value for private- equity investors is approaching $400 billion, the South China Morning Post reported. That would mean an even bigger fortune for Zhang.
ByteDance representatives didn’t respond to requests for comment.