Zhang Yiming (张一鸣)
Zhang Yiming is the founder of ByteDance, the company behind Toutiao, Douyin and its international version TikTok. He co-founded ByteDance with Liang Rubo in March 2012 and stepped down as CEO and then chairman in 2021, handing both roles to Liang Rubo.
Background and notable work
- Early life and education: born in 1983 in Longyan, Fujian; he entered Nankai University in 2001, studying microelectronics and software engineering, and graduated in 2005.
- Early career: per his Wikipedia entry, in 2006 he became the fifth employee and first engineer at the travel search site Kuxun, promoted to technical director about a year later; in 2008 he worked briefly at Microsoft and then joined the startup Fanfou; in 2009 he founded the real-estate search site 99fang.com, his first company.
- Founding ByteDance: in March 2012 he and Liang Rubo founded ByteDance in a Beijing apartment; in August 2012 the company launched Toutiao, a personalized news feed app that reached more than 13 million daily users within two years, and in 2014 Sequoia Capital led a 100 million dollar investment.
- Douyin and TikTok: ByteDance launched the short-video app Douyin in 2016 and the international version TikTok in September 2017; in August 2018 it acquired Musical.ly for about 800 million dollars and merged it into TikTok. By late 2018 ByteDance was valued at 75 billion dollars, surpassing Uber.
- Stepping down: he announced his resignation as CEO in May 2021 and completed the handover as chairman on November 4, 2021, with co-founder Liang Rubo succeeding him in both roles. Per Reuters, he retains over 50% of ByteDance’s voting rights.
Mentioned in the show
Zhang Yiming does not appear in the episodes quoted on this page; the following is a host’s relay. In Weekly #004, in the chapter on trust, personal branding and products (Chinese transcript), Xiangyang Qiaomu says “Zhang Yiming said treat the company as a product — your articles are your products, your apps are your products, all can be your works” (see that line), to support the point that everything can be treated as a product.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Zhang Yiming?
The founder of ByteDance, whose most representative products are Toutiao, Douyin and TikTok.
What does Zhang Yiming do now?
He stepped down as ByteDance’s CEO in May 2021 and as chairman in November of the same year, succeeded by Liang Rubo; per Reuters, he retains over 50% of the company’s voting rights.
When was ByteDance founded?
March 2012, founded by Zhang Yiming and Liang Rubo in Beijing.
What did Zhang Yiming do before ByteDance?
Per his Wikipedia entry, he was Kuxun’s first engineer (later technical director), worked briefly at Microsoft, joined Fanfou, and founded 99fang.com in 2009.