TikTok’s Zhang Yiming is China’s richest person under 40 with fortune of US$53.4 billion: Hurun

Zhang, the founder of TikTok owner ByteDance, is also likely to become China’s richest person, especially if ByteDance ‘goes public successfully’, Rupert Hoogewerf says
Sea Group’s Ye Gang and Li Auto’s Li Xiang among top ranks, while TAL Education co-founders record biggest slump in net worth

China's tech billionaires

Iris Ouyangin Shenzhen

Published: 12:30pm, 25 Dec 2021

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Zhang Yiming, the founder of TikTok owner ByteDance, has topped the rankings of China’s richest billionaires under 40, Shanghai-based Hurun Research Institute said on Friday.

As of mid-September, the 38-year-old’s fortune had grown by 230 billion yuan (US$36.1 billion) to 340 billion yuan from the same period last year. Zhang’s jump in terms of wealth was the biggest among his peers and he could become the country’s richest person, Hurun said.

“Zhang Yiming is very likely to become the next richest person in China, especially if [ByteDance] goes public successfully,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun’s chairman.

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TikTok, the very popular video sharing app, has become the most downloaded app in the world. ByteDance, its parent, has also overtaken Ant Group as the world’s most valuable unicorn with a valuation of US$350 billion, according to the latest Hurun Global Unicorn Index, which was published on Monday.

Zhang ranked second on the Hurun China Rich List in October, behind Zhong Shanshan of Nongfu, after his fortune tripled from last year. He surpassed Tencent Holdings’ founder Pony Ma and Alibaba Group Holding’s Jack Ma in the process.

Ye Gang, the co-founder of Sea Group. Photo: Handout

This year, 32 entrepreneurs were added to the rankings, the most since Hurun started compiling the under-40 list. Most were from the advanced manufacturing, retail and entertainment sectors.

Ye Gang, the co-founder of Sea Group, a consumer internet company that owns online shopping platform Shopee, was the second richest under 40 year with a net worth of 70 billion yuan. Sea Group is backed by Tencent.

Chris Xu, the founder and CEO of online fast fashion retailer Shein, was a new entrant and ranked third with a net worth of 40 billion yuan.

Li Xiang, the CEO of Li Auto. Photo: Sohu

Li Xiang, the founder of Hong Kong and Nasdaq-listed Li Auto, ranked fourth after his fortune surged by 63 per cent to 39 billion yuan amid the boom in China’s electric vehicle industry.

“The total fortune of the entrepreneurs under 40 recorded a 7 per cent jump to 1.097 trillion yuan from last year, a record high,” said Hoogewerf.

About 11 entrepreneurs fell off the list after their fortunes shrank to below 2 billion. Liu Yachao, the 39-year-old co-founder of TAL Education Group was among them. The New York-listed company has seen its share price slid 94 per cent so far this year, after Beijing cracked down on the after-school tutoring sector to reduce the burden on students and parents.

Zhang Bangxin, another co-founder of TAL, recorded the biggest drop in net worth – of 89.3 billion yuan – among entrepreneurs under 40.