by Night view of the Lujiazui financial district in downtown Shanghai.
Yongyuan Dai | E+ | Getty Images
ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming became China’s richest person for the first time, according to a list compiled by Hurun Research Institute, leaving behind Nongfu Spring Chairman Zhong Shanshan, who is in top of the rankings for three years.
Zhang, 44, with a personal fortune of $49.3 billion, beat out “bottled water king” Zhong, whose fortune fell 24 percent to $47.9 billion after a public backlash against his company in February. Zhang was ranked fifth last year.
ByteDance is known for its popular app, TikTok, which has over 1 billion active monthly users worldwide. The company’s profits jumped about 30% last year, Hurun said.
Pony Ma Huateng, CEO of Chinese internet giant Tencent, fell one place to third place, even as his wealth rose 13% to $44.4 billion amid rising income and of Tencent’s profits.
Colin Huang, founder of e-commerce platform Pinduoduo, ranked fourth as his wealth declined by 9 percent. Midea founder He Xiangjian and CATL CEO Zeng Yuqun took the fifth and sixth places on the list.
China has 1,094 individuals with wealth exceeding 5 billion yuan ($700 million), down 12 percent or 147 individuals from the previous year, according to Hurun Research. The combined wealth of these entrepreneurs was $3 trillion, down 10% from last year.
The number of billionaires in the country fell by 142 to 753 from the previous year – and down more than 30% from the peak of 1,185 reached in 2021.
“The Hurun China Rich List declined for an unprecedented third consecutive year as China’s economy and stock markets suffered a difficult year,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun Report president and chief researcher.
The current rich list mainly includes entrepreneurs from the technology, consumer electronics and new energy sectors, once dominated by real estate developers, Hoogewerf noted.
“The stories of the individuals on the Hurun China Rich List tell the story of China’s economy,” he said.
The new generation of Chinese entrepreneurs are also more international than their predecessors, Hoogewerf observed, citing how ByteDance’s Zhang went global with TikTok and Pinduoduo’s Huang contributed to Temu’s rise as a global commerce hub electronic.
