TikTok founder and boss Cang Yiming has captured the title of China’s richest person. Yiming, who developed TikTok under his parent company ByteDance, which he founded in 2012, rose to first place for the first time. So, who is TikTok founder Cang Yiming?
Cang Yiming was born on April 1, 1983 in Fujian, China. In 2001, he enrolled in Nankai University in Tianjin, where he majored in microelectronics engineering and software engineering. He graduated with a BEng degree in Computer Engineering in 2005. He met his wife at university.
In August 2012, ByteDance launched news app Toutiao, which attracted more than 13 million daily users within two years. Sequoia Capital, which initially rejected Zhang, turned around and invested US$100 million in the company in 2014. In September 2015, ByteDance launched video-sharing app TikTok (known as Douyin in China) to little fanfare. The product was an instant hit with millennials and has become popular worldwide.
Zhang said he would step down as CEO in May 2021 and be succeeded by Liang Rubo.
