ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming has climbed Asia’s wealth rankings with a net worth of $92.8 billion, overtaking Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani as the continent’s second-richest person.
While Gautam Adani continues to hold the top slot with a whopping $117.4 billion net worth, Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, slipped to third place with a net worth of $86.9 billion.
According to reports, Ambani’s fortune has declined by $20.8 billion this year amid volatile global oil prices and geopolitical turbulence as the conglomerate, founded by his father Dhirubhai Ambani in the 1950s, has interests in energy, retail and entertainment. Petrochemicals account for more than half of the group’s business.
Zhang, on the other hand, co-founded ByteDance in 2012. The company began with news aggregator Toutiao before expanding through short-video app Douyin, later launched internationally as TikTok.
ByteDance has since grown into an internet giant with businesses spanning e-commerce, education, gaming and news, according to Forbes. Zhang stepped down as both chief executive and chairman of ByteDance in 2021, though he remains a shareholder.
He first claimed the title of China’s richest person last year, lost it briefly to bottled water tycoon Zhong Shanshan and reclaimed it earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Tadashi Yanai, founder of Uniqlo parent Fast Retailing, holds the fourth place with $72.5 billion, whereas SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son holds the fifth position with $72 billion.
