China’s richest man: You must have heard many stories about the billionaires of China and also the news that the billionaires of China are leaving the country at an unimaginable rate. However, here is a story about a man who is the richest man of China. According to a rich list produced by the Hurun Research Institute, Zhang Yiming is the richest man of China having a net worth of $49.3bn (£38bn).
For those unversed, Zhang Yiming is the Former CEO of ByteDance which owns TikTok. The global surge in TikTok’s popularity has propelled the co-founder of its parent company, ByteDance, to become China’s richest person. Even after stepping down from his leadership role in 2021, he is thought to retain about a fifth of the company’s ownership. Zhang started ByteDance in 2012 in a four-bedroom Beijing apartment, which later gave birth to TikTok.
“Zhang Yiming is the 18th new Number One we have had in China in just 26 years,” said head of Hurun Rupert Hoogewerf.
President-elect Donald Trump indicated on Sunday that he favored allowing TikTok to keep operating in the United States for at least a little while, saying he had received billions of views on the social media platform during his presidential campaign.
Trump‘s comments before a crowd of conservative supporters in Phoenix, Arizona, were one of the strongest signals yet that he opposes a potential exit of TikTok from the U.S. market.
The US Senate passed a law in April requiring TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to divest the app, citing national security concerns.
“It was amazing so we got the highest vote ever for a Republican candidate, we won by 36 points with young people. That never happens. A Republican loses by 36 or 40, so I’m going to have to start thinking about TikTok. I think we’re going to have to start thinking, because, you know, we did go on TikTok, and we had a great response. We had billions of views, billions and billions of views. They brought me a chart, and it was a record, and it was so beautiful to see, and as I looked at it, I said, ‘Maybe we gotta keep this sucker around for a little while”, Donald Trump was quoted saying in a report by Reuters.
TikTok’s owners have sought to have the law struck down, and the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case. But if the court does not rule in ByteDance’s favor and no divestment occurs, the app could be effectively banned in the United States on Jan. 19, one day before Trump takes office. It is unclear how Trump would go about undoing the TikTok divestiture order, which passed overwhelmingly in the Senate.
(With inputs from agencies)
