Jack Ma, founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, is the richest man in China for the second time this year, followed by Tencent’s chairman Ma Huateng in second place, the Hurun 100 list for 2020 has revealed. But real estate tycoon Evergrande Group’s Hui Kayan and Country Garden’s co-chairwoman Yang Huiyin both dropped in the rankings, dropping from the top five to fifth and sixth.
The Hurun Research Institute released the “2020 Henchang Burner – Hurun Rich List” on Tuesday (Oct. 20). Jack Ma’s wealth increased by 45% from 2019 to $58.8 billion, ranking first. Ma Huateng, chairman of Tencent’s board of directors, came in second with $57.4 billion, up 50%. The company’s WeChat and its international version, WeChat, have a total of 1,202.5 million monthly active users as of March 31, 2020.
Third on the list is the dark horse of this year’s Rich 100 list, chairman of bottled water brand Nongfu Shanquan, Zhong Huo, worth $53.7 billion. Zhong whipped on the list for the first time this year to get the third place on the Rich List, called “big dark horse” by Hurun.
According to the statistics of Hurun Rich List, the number of people on the 2020 Rich List has increased by 579 this year, about 32%, to 2,398, a record high. Previously, the Hurun Report had two decreases in membership. This year, 2,398 entrepreneurs have wealth of more than $2 billion. The total wealth of the entrepreneurs on the list has increased by nearly 10 trillion yuan compared to last year, which is more than the total increase in the previous five years, reaching 27.5 trillion yuan. The number of billion-dollar entrepreneurs has doubled from last year, reaching 41, the most ever.
According to a statement from the Hurun Report, China’s real estate industry saw the largest drop in the number of people on the list in years, from 14.8 percent last year to 10.6 percent, dropping out of the top two industries for the first time since 1999, making it the third largest industry. Hui Kayan of Evergrande Real Estate Group, worth $35.1 billion, came in fifth. Yang Huiyin, co-chairwoman of real estate development group Country Garden, came in sixth with $33 billion, making her the richest woman on the list, with her wealth up 29 percent from last year.
On the back of U.S. sanctions, Ren Zhengfei’s fortune shrank by 10 percent to 19 billion ($2.8 billion).
Analysts say the shutdown during the neo-coronavirus pandemic, which has had a deadly impact on brick-and-mortar stores, has provided room for companies such as e-commerce (e.g., Alibaba) and online games (e.g., Tencent), as well as other online operations, to flourish.
According to the Hurun 2020 list, Yuan Zheng, founder of Zoom, a California-based video conferencing software company, is worth more than $10 billion, up to $16.2 billion. Li Yongxin, chairman of Offcn, an online job training platform, more than doubled his worth to $20.6 billion. Xiangdong Chen, chairman of the online tutoring platform Who to Learn From, rose eightfold to $11.8 billion.
Rupert Hoogewerf, who pioneered the “Rich List” in 1999, is known as the “godfather” of China’s private economy. This is the 22nd consecutive year since 1999 that the Hurun Report has released the “Hurun Rich List”.
Hengchang Brewery, the baijiu brand of Global Good Brewery Group, is a partner of the 2020 Hurun Report, and the 2019 and 2018 Hurun Report is sponsored by automaker Lexus.
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