ByteDance’s founder is China’s richest person with a net worth of $49.3 billion

Depending on who you ask, TikTok is either the biggest name in pop culture or a corrupted enterprise that harms the mental health of today’s youth. But at least one person associated with the app’s parent company is sitting pretty. According to a wealth tracker called the Hurun Rich List, ByteDance Co-Founder Zhang Yiming is the richest individual in China with an estimated net worth of $49.3 billion.

According to the BBC, the 41-year-old Yiming owns about 20% of Beijing-based ByteDance, which has enjoyed a string of strong financial results. Though its video-sharing subsidiary TikTok claims most of its headlines in the West, ByteDance operates several properties that thrive in the domestic Chinese and Southeast Asian markets. In 2022, Yiming’s company reported a $25 billion profit. Ecommerce and social shopping on Douyin — the Chinese equivalent of TikTok — accounted for a significant portion of those earnings.

Yiming stepped down from his position as ByteDance CEO in 2021, but he is still making bank thanks to his sizable ownership stake. The Hurun report noted that Yiming is the 18th person to be named as China’s wealthiest across 26 years of the Rich List. Over the same period, only four people — Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk — have held the same title in the U.S.

The frequently changing names at the top of the Hurun Rich List either represent China’s economic diversity or its volatile relationship with outspoken billionaires. Alibaba Co-Founder Jack Ma

, who once stood as China’s richest person, has had his net worth gutted as a result of disputes with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials. Several other “vanishing billionaires” have raised questions about the CCP’s treatment of China’s 1%. ByteDance still has a strong relationship with the CCP, which has likely contributed to Yiming’s increasing net worth.

We could spend all day delving into the minutiae of China’s billionaire class, but as far as Americans are concerned, there’s a clear takeaway from Yiming’s chart-topping status: ByteDance won’t be intimidated. The tech company is currently challenging the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversaries Act (PAFFAA), a law that would force either a ban or divestiture of TikTok in the United States. Though multiple entrepreneurs have stepped forward as potential buyers in the event of a TikTok sale, ByteDance has repeatedly insisted that it will not divest its popular video app.

That statement should not be seen as an idle threat. TikTok and ByteDance are still going strong even after pulling out of the massive Indian online video market, and they could probably outlast a U.S. ban, too. Rather than seeing divestiture as the most likely outcome of an upheld PAFFAA, American consumers should understand that law as a path to a national ban. Such a decision would result in a huge loss for ByteDance, but it seems like Yiming and co. can afford it.