Read on Twitter
TikTok founder Zhang Yiming, long an admirer of Silicon Valley, always wanted the company he created to be seen as global. But not this way, as his company is dragged into the U.S.-China geopolitical morass. Big WSJ profile by @lizalinwsj @evawxiao. https://on.wsj.com/2YIczoN
Zhang Yiming is different from an earlier generation of Chinese tech founders—more California than Great Hall of the People. He wears T-shirts and jeans, eats at the canteen and quotes Bezos. Employees call him by his given name. He isn’t a Party member. https://on.wsj.com/2YIczoN
Zhang was born in 1983, a period when China was starting to open up. He lasted at Microsoft’s Beijing office less than a year, saying later that he found the work so unchallenging that he spent half his time reading books. https://on.wsj.com/2YIczoN
In 2009, after violence in Xinjiang, authorities blocked several websites. Zhang railed against the restrictions. “Go out and wear a T-shirt supporting Google,” he wrote. “If you block the internet, I’ll write what I want to say on my clothes.” https://on.wsj.com/2YIczoN
Zhang started ByteDance in a Beijing apartment in 2012. From the start it had global ambitions, though many employees had never been abroad. “The biggest meeting room was about 10 square meters, but your ideas could be very big.” https://on.wsj.com/2YIczoN
ByteDance first broke through with a news-aggregation app. Zhang didn’t have a media background—but he could code. The app used AI to feed users news based on their habits: What did they click on? How long did they linger? That philosophy later fed TikTok. https://on.wsj.com/2YIczoN
With TikTok, Zhang had global ambitions from the start. He said in March 2018 that he expected TikTok to have more users outside of China than inside it within three years. https://on.wsj.com/2YIczoN
Late last year, as the U.S. began a national-security review of TikTok, Zhang reached out to Microsoft President Brad Smith and CEO Satya Nadella for advice. The talks eventually evolved into discussions of a sale. https://on.wsj.com/2YIczoN
Zhang was so impressed by Smith's book on tech governance, “Tools and Weapons,” he had it translated into Chinese and ordered his management team to read it. He highlighted an excerpt about the role of social media in the 2019 New Zealand mosque massacre. https://on.wsj.com/2YIczoN
In other TikTok news, Walmart also wants a piece of the action, because at this point why not? https://on.wsj.com/2QvHHmX
