On the evening of April 1st, Singapore time, Lianhe Zaobao confirmed that ByteDance co-founder Zhang Yiming has officially become a Singaporean citizen. ByteDance also stated that the company has become a "Singaporean company whose actual controller is a Singaporean citizen."
With this change of citizenship, Zhang Yiming climbed to 23rd place on the 2025 Forbes Global Billionaires List with a net worth of US$65.5 billion, becoming Singapore's new richest person and the only Singaporean to make the top 50. His wealth increased by nearly 51% year-on-year. As the driving force behind TikTok, he helped the platform reach over 1.2 billion users worldwide and stepped down as ByteDance's president and chairman in 2021.
This sudden naturalization not only made Zhang Yiming the wealthiest entrepreneur in Singapore but also thrust ByteDance's corporate identity back into the international spotlight.