On the evening of April 1 (SGT time zone), Lianhe Zaobao confirmed that Zhang Yiming, co-founder of ByteDance, has officially become a citizen of Singapore. ByteDance also stated that the company is now considered a "Singaporean company with its actual controller holding Singaporean nationality."
With this nationality change, Zhang Yiming has climbed to the 23rd spot on the Forbes 2025 Billionaires List with a net worth of $65.5 billion, making him Singapore’s new richest person. He is also the only Singaporean billionaire in the global top 50, with his wealth increasing by nearly 51% year-over-year. As the driving force behind TikTok, he helped the platform surpass 1.2 billion global users before stepping down as ByteDance’s CEO and chairman in 2021.
This abrupt citizenship shift not only establishes Zhang Yiming as Singapore’s wealthiest entrepreneur but also thrusts ByteDance’s corporate identity back into the international spotlight.