Hurun Research Institute’s latest ranking list is topped by Zhang Yiming, the founder of ByteDance and owner of the parent company of TikTok, with an impressive personal fortune of $49.3 billion. Zhang is the mastermind behind one of the biggest internet companies in the country. The ranking marks continued Chinese tech entrepreneurship dominance. In a very strong legal contest that has been mounted on its shoulders in the United States, ByteDance popularity and financials were able to add a great input towards Zhang’s net worth. In 2023, revenue of ByteDance on a global scale raised its growth by 30 percent to $110 billion; hence, he had placed himself as China’s billionaire number one.
Zhang Yiming Tops Hurun Rankings
Despite stepping down as ByteDance’s CEO in 2021, Zhang owns about 20% of the company. His net worth rose, and he became the 18th person ever to top the Hurun list, which began in 1999. This spot rotation is quite different from what has been seen in the U.S., with only four people—Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk—ever sitting at the top of that ranking over the years. That is indicative of a relatively changing economy.
However, billionaires in China are in decline. Zhong Shanshan, former No 1 and bottled water tycoon whose net worth fell by 24% to $47.9bn, ranks second. Tencent founder Ma Huateng, or Pony Ma, is third. The fall marks a continuation of China’s three years of economic gloom-the number of billionaires here has decreased every year since 2021 to 753.
Only 30% of Chinese billionaires in 2024 witnessed an increase in their wealth, but some technology areas like Xiaomi still showed relative resilience. The real estate and green energy sectors witnessed significant declines, further pointing to the shaky ground upon which China’s rich stand.
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