TikTok Founder's Fortune Has Dropped $13 Billion Since September
NDTV
ByteDance's founders own about 20% of the company, Chew said in his testimony - a figure lower than reported estimates in recent years.
TikTok CEO Shou Chew's testimony before Congress last week has done little to assuage US security concerns surrounding the social-media company.
Yet it has shed new light on the fortune of one of the world's richest people: Zhang Yiming, the 39-year-old co-founder of ByteDance Ltd., TikTok's Chinese parent.
ByteDance's founders own about 20% of the company, Chew said in his testimony - a figure lower than reported estimates in recent years. That could put Zhang's wealth at $42.3 billion, based on the firm's $220 billion value from private trades revealed earlier this month, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
That estimate is down about $13 billion from September, when the world's biggest startup initiated a stock buyback that valued it at about $300 billion. Two years ago, Zhang could have been worth more than $60 billion - making him one of Asia's richest people - with investors willing to buy a piece at a valuation of almost $400 billion.
