TikTok founder, 41, takes title of China’s richest man three years after stepping down from firm

TIKTOK’S founder has taken over the title of China’s richest man.

Zhang Yiming, 41, the founder of the app’s parent company ByteDance, is now worth £38billion.

The tech guru stepped down from running the firm in 2021, but is understood to still own a 20 per cent stake in it.

Hurun Research Institute, which compiled the rich list, says Yiming’s worth is up 43 per cent on last year.

He is the first person born in the 1980s to get top spot.

He leapfrogged bottled water magnate Zhong Shanshan, who had been previously top, but saw his fortune fall 24 per cent to £36billion.

The survey of the entrepreneurs on the list found that their total wealth was down ten per cent on 2023.

TikTok remains one of the most popular social media apps in the world, despite concerns over its ties to the ­Chinese government.

Both TikTok and parent company ByteDance say they are independent of the country’s communist regime.

Yet the US still plans to ban the social media app in January unless it is sold by its Chinese owners.