The personal wealth of Facebook founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Mark Zuckerberg reached $100 billion following the US launch of TikTok rival, Instagram Reels.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg saw his personal wealth increase to $100 billion after Facebook announced the US rollout of Instagram Reels, the tech giant's rival to controversial Chinese short video sharing app TikTok.
Increasing wealth for technology chiefs
Following the Instagram Reels launch, shares of Facebook surged by over 6% on Thursday. This pushed upward the wealth of Zuckerberg, who currently holds a 13% stake in the company.
With this milestone, Zuckerberg joins the exclusive so-called 'Centibillionaire Club', which also includes Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Microsoft’s Bill Gates.
Recently, technology company founders have been on the limelight due to the continued increase in size and power of their companies and their personal fortunes amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
Since the coronavirus lockdowns and restrictions started, Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Google have been among the biggest benefactors as more people shop, watch entertainment and socialize online.
A Bloomberg report indicated that Zuckerberg’s personal wealth went up by about $22 billion this year, while Mr Bezos's has increased by more than $75 billion.
Plagiarism and smear
ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, accuses of Facebook of “plagiarism and smear.” The Chinese company admits it is facing a lot of complex difficulties.
ByteDance did not elaborate its accusation of Facebook. The Beijing-based firm says that while it is “committed to becoming a global company,” it has faced “all kinds of complex and unimaginable difficulties,” based on a CNBC translation of the Chinese statement.
These include an “intense international political environment, the collision and conflict of different cultures, and the plagiarism and smear of competitor Facebook,” according to the company.
ByteDance only said the accusation was mainly aimed at its domestic Chinese audience.
Executive orders against TikTok and WeChat
US President Donald Trump has issued executive orders that would ban TikTok and WeChat in the US in 45 days if sold by their Chinese-owned parent companies.
The executive orders state that the video sharing app TikTok and the group chat app WeChat will be prohibited from operating in the US if their Chinese-owned parent companies fail to sell them in 45 days.
The TikTok order states that after 45 days, “any transaction by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, with ByteDance Ltd.,” will be prohibited.
The order also makes the accusation that the social media platform “automatically captures vast swaths of information from its users,” such as location data and browsing and search histories, which “threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information — potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage.”
Meanwhile, the executive order issued for Tencent-owned WeChat, which allows its users to transfer funds to each other, states that financial transactions with Tencent will be banned.
The order prohibits “any transaction that is related to WeChat by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, with Tencent Holdings Ltd. (a.k.a. Téngxùn Kònggǔ Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī), Shenzhen, China, or any subsidiary of that entity, as identified by the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary) under section 1(c) of this order.”
