HEAD OF THE DAY
🇨🇳 Zhang Yiming
🤖 From Outsider Engineer to TikTok Mastermind: Zhang Yiming founded ByteDance in 2012, launched the AI‐driven news app Toutiao and the global hit Douyin (TikTok), and by 2025 has amassed an estimated $65.5 billion fortune—making him China’s richest person. Born in Longyan, Fujian in 1983 and a Nankai University computer-engineering graduate, he cut his teeth at startups and Microsoft before persuading skeptical VCs to back his recommendation-engine vision. He stepped down as CEO in 2021 but still wields over 50 % of ByteDance’s voting rights.
Fun Fact: To stay close to his product, Zhang banned senior managers from calling him “boss” and once made them post their own TikToks—doing push-ups if their videos didn’t hit a target number of likes.
👉 Lesson learned: Pair deep technical chops with relentless user-obsession—use data and AI not just to build models, but to shape culture and products that stick.
The China Survival Guide for Western Businesses
Entity setup, WeChat strategy, hiring your first local team. 12+ years on the ground in Shanghai.
