Statistics
Alibaba's Ma Tops Forbes China Rich List; E-Commerce Tycoons Flourish
Unsurprisingly following the record-breaking initial public offering of Alibaba in September, its founder, Jack Ma, is top of the charts in rankings of richest person in China.
Unsurprisingly following the record-breaking initial public
offering of Alibaba in
September, its founder, Jack Ma, is top of the
charts in rankings of richest person in China. And data shows how
the digital revolution is creating Asian tycoons to compete with,
and even beat, their Silicon Valley rivals.
Forbes, the publisher, says that Ma tops the list as the
richest man in China for the first time, with a net worth of
$19.5 billion, skyrocketing from $7.1 billion a year ago.
Robin Li is in second place with a net worth of $14.7 billion, up
from $11.1 billion the year before. Li is the chairman of China’s
biggest search engine, Baidu.
Ma Huateng, owner of Tencent, is in third place on the list with
a fortune of $14.4 billion, up from $10.2 billion a year ago.
Tencent’s WeChat mobile texting service has attracted nearly 440
million users, Forbes said.
“The fortunes of Chinese web entrepreneurs are starting to
surpass U.S. tech icons like Paul Allen, Eric Schmidt, Jerry Yang
and Sheryl Sandberg,” Russell Flannery, senior editor and
Shanghai bureau chief for Forbes Asia, said. “That is
telling us that China will compete with, if not surpass, the US
for the lion’s share of new wealth to be made in an era when
e-commerce and mobile services are going to become a lot more
pervasive.”
The minimum to make the top 400 list rose to $700 million, up
from $600 million last year.
The top 10 richest in China are:
1) Jack Ma; $19.5 billion
2) Robin Li; $14.7 billion
3) Ma Huateng; $14.4 billion
4) Wang Jianlin; $13.2 billion
5) Li Hejun; $13 billion
6) Zong Qinghou; $11 billion
7) Wang Wenyin; $10 billion
8) Lei Jun; $9.1 billion
9) He Xiangjian; $7.5 billion
10) Liu Qiangdong; $7.1 billion
The publication said the list was compiled using shareholding and
financial information obtained from families and individuals,
stock exchanges, analysts, private databases and other
sources.
