Xavier Niel joins the board of directors of ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok

Free founder (and individual shareholder of Le Monde Group), Xavier Niel, has joined the board of directors of ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company. The billionaire, who has been listed on the Chinese group’s website since Friday, August 30, has not commented on this appointment.

The board of directors of the Chinese group, chaired by Rubo Liang, the co-founder and CEO of the company, includes several international entrepreneurs, including the Chinese Neil Shen. Xavier Niel will replace Philippe Laffont, head of the American investment fund Coatue Management.

If the site The Information had reported on August 23 that Coatue Management was planning to sell some of its shares in the company, but there was no indication that he would be replaced by the boss of Free.

According to the magazine Challengesthe fortune of the owner of Iliad, a telecoms group present in France, Italy and Poland, is estimated at 22.1 billion euros, making him one of the ten richest people in France.

Xavier Niel will also be on the bill at the Olympia on September 18 to explain “how to become a billionaire”on the occasion of the release of a book that he will present on the stage of the Parisian hall. “How to become a billionaire? That’s the question everyone is asking. There are only 53 people in France who can answer it. Only one will do it on the stage of the Olympia.”promises the pitch on the ticketing website, without giving further details.