Despite his role, let’s say, less beautiful, the life of Steve Jobs has been a source of inspiration for all types of businesses and people. In fact, his legacy still lives on at Apple, but also in a way on TikTok. Yeah, The famous social network of Chinese origin has a lot of jobs. Or at least that was the intention of its creator, Zhang Yiming.
As the New York Times reports, Yiming was a total admirer of the life and work of one of Apple’s co-founders. So much so that it led to the creation of BytDance, the parent company of TikTok. However, His first professional step had absolutely nothing to do with technology. In fact, without Jobs, he might never have changed fields and Europe wouldn’t be investigating his TikTok addiction.
From selling houses to running a tech empire
Although not yet in his thirties, Zhang Yimming was already participating in a real estate startup based in China, his native country. Its name was 99Fang and its goals were ultimately not unusual for a company of this type: to help customers find the home of their dreams.
Archive image by Zhang Yimming
In 2009, the real estate company received a significant investment from technology company Susquehanna International Group, a US-based venture capitalist founded by now-millionaire businessman Jeff Yass. A man who saved the ban on TikTok in the United States a few years ago, when at that time the social network did not exist.
It was three years later that the real estate company 99Fang, with the help of Susquehanna, created a search algorithm so technologically powerful that it even led to creation of BytDance, a technology company that in 2017 would end up being the promoter of TikTok. And to lead this new company, investor Susquehanna chose to choose Zhang Yimming as executive director, a position he still holds today.
A breath of fresh air for a guy “obsessed” with Steve Jobs
Although much of his work at 99Fang was related to the technology side, Zhang Yimming felt that the real estate sector was up to the task. It bothered him and it was also something too different from what his reference, Steve Jobs, was doing. It’s not that he reached an unhealthy limit as far as Jobs is concerned, but several witnesses assure Zhang’s Passion for Jobs’ Life, to the point of having studied all his life. From books about the Apple co-founder to movies.
This is why he was delighted to be at the head of BytDance in 2012. He could finally apply his knowledge inherited from Jobs in a company which, unlike 99Fang, was 100% oriented towards the technological field.
Having a visionary character and transforming people’s lives is what Zhang wanted and in a way He understood it when TikTok appeared. We can therefore hear that TikTok would not exist without Steve Jobs. Obviously we’ll never know, because he makes a lot of assumptions about a circumstance that never happened, but perhaps without a character like Jobs, Zhang wouldn’t have had such an interest in technology.
TikTok may escape Zhang’s hands (in the US)
There American war against TikTok It has been in production for years. There are opinions for all tastes and with more or less argued positions on both sides. There was a time when there was debate about banning it, although ultimately the fulcrum of everything (at least currently) is that BytDance, the global owner of TikTok, is of Chinese origin.
Thus, the US Senate spent months seeking to sell the social network to an American company. In fact, they’re close to doing just that, as this week the law requiring it was approved.
Unless President Joe Biden signs it, which appears confirmed, all indications are that the law will move forward. And even if there would be a deadline which could be extended by three years and with recourse, the idea would be frozen. And this, at least in the United States, would take TikTok out of Zhang’s hands only to end up in the hands of another American company.
In Applesfera | What Steve Jobs’ daily life was like when he worked at Apple and Pixar
In Applesfera | How to Download TikTok Videos to iPhone Fast and Free
