Founder of TikTok owner ByteDance Zhang Yiming makes fresh donation while keeping a low profile

Zhang Yiming, the 40-year-old founder of TikTok owner ByteDance, has donated another 200 million yuan (US$28.9 million) to an education fund he created two years ago, a municipal education authority said in a statement on Thursday, offering a rare glimpse of the Chinese entrepreneur’s activity after disappearing from the public spotlight nearly two years ago.

The education bureau of Longyan, Zhang’s home city of 2.7 million people in southeastern Fujian province, announced the new donation in a statement on Thursday. It adds to the initial 500 million yuan he gave in 2021.

The money will “be used to support educational public welfare projects, such as vocational and art education in the city”, the bureau said in the statement published to WeChat.

ByteDance builds school of digital economy in founder’s hometown

Zhang has carefully avoided publicly acknowledging his whereabouts since he relinquished his roles as CEO and chairman at ByteDance in 2021 – although he remains as a key decision-maker in his business empire that includes TikTok and Douyin, the Chinese version of the hit short video app. The Information reported in September that Zhang, the second-richest person in China, spent most of 2022 living overseas, primarily based out of Singapore, where TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is also based.

The last photo of Zhang to be published was during his 2021 Longyan visit, while at Yongding No 1 Middle School, which he attended. The education bureau used the same photograph with the latest announcement.

The fund, named “Fang Mei” after Zhang’s grandmothers, has granted more than 27 million yuan in awards to nearly 1,500 middle and elementary school teachers in Longyan. It has also financed some school infrastructure, including a new dormitory and playground, and funded training for 84 local teachers last month at Beijing Normal University, China’s top institution for training teachers.

ByteDance’s flagship TikTok app is facing mounting political pressure overseas, particularly in the US. Washington banned the app on federal devices over data privacy concerns, and more than 30 states have taken similar measures for local government devices. In April, Montana became the first state to pass legislation that would make it illegal to download the app, although the governor has requested changes to expand the scope of the bill.

The legal uncertainty has led to declining valuations of ByteDance, which has put plans for a public listing on the back-burner, dragging down Zhang’s net worth along with it.

Zhang, who still owns about a fifth of the company, is now worth US$42.3 billion, down from US$54.9 billion in March, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That month, an investment by Abu Dhabi artificial intelligence firm G42 valued ByteDance at around US$220 billion, Bloomberg News reported, down from a peak valuation of US$400 billion in 2021.

Several Chinese tech billionaires have been making a series of charitable donations in recent years, as Beijing has tightened its grip on the industry and called for the pursuit of “common prosperity”.

Richard Liu Qiangdong, founder of e-commerce giant JD.com, topped the 2022 Hurun China Philanthropy List by giving away 14.9 billion yuan last year. Wang Xing, another Longyan native who founded food delivery giant Meituan, came in second with donations of 14.7 billion yuan.