Book of social media quotes from TikTok owner Zhang Yiming becomes a must-read amid tech billionaire’s silence

Both hard and soft copies of Zhang’s quotations are available on online marketplaces such as Taobao and Pinduoduo for up to 20 yuan a copy. Zhang would post up to 10 times a day on Weibo in the early 2010s, talking about everything from his wife, his back pain, job postings, to book and film reviews. — SCMP

An unauthorised book recording TikTok owner Zhang Yiming’s social media posts between 2010 and 2016 has become popular online as Chinese netizens rush to get a glimpse of the young tech billionaire’s thinking at a time when he is maintaining a low profile.

Zhang, 38, is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in China after turning a startup that began life in his small residential flat into global social media giant ByteDance within a decade. However, amid Beijing’s broad regulatory crackdown on Big Tech companies, Zhang stepped down from his role as chief executive in May to focus on “longer-term initiatives”.