As of mid-August, the country had 596 billionaires, up 242 on 2014, and above the US figure of 537, said Shanghai-based consultancy Hurun Report in its annual China Rich List.
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“Despite the slowdown in the economy, China’s richest have defied gravity, recording their best year ever”, Hoogewerf said in a statement. “I don’t expect that we’ll maintain the same explosive growth next year – the past year was unusual, with a pent-up unleashing of initial public offerings by Chinese companies”, he acknowledged. Ant Financial is warming up to be one of the most anticipated listings of next year, after another round of investment in July valuing it $45 billion.
The USA has lost its crown as the country with the most billionaires. He is also one of the world’s most active venture capitalists.
China’s booming information technology industry was the fastest-growing source of wealth, with the number of individuals from the industry on the list jumping 43 per cent on previous year. Wang has been diversifying his assets and recently purchased World Triathlon Corporation, which owns the Ironman brand.
While Jianlin’s fortune has reportedly risen to $34.4 billion, Ma’s has fallen to $22.7 billion with a three-percent decrease. He added that there were now 18 Alibaba employees on the rich list.
However, all of China’s billionaires have emerged in the past decade. Hurun said she and her husband were now worth $10 billion. Impressively, “The China Rich List” also has the world’s highest percentage of self-made entrepreneurs with 95% on the list being self-made, and only 5% inheriting their wealth. They include Cheng Wei, a former Alibaba executive who left to co-found ride-hailing app Didi Kuaidi, which is locked in a fierce battle with Uber to win over commuters and dominate the Chinese market. Many analysts suspect that the stock price boom was an artificial phenomenon created by the Chinese government. Yet a few skeptics still predict a bubble in China’s hi-tech industries.
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The new kid on the billionaires’ block, Lei Jun, who became a big success with his smartphone firm Xiaomi with aspirations to challenge Apple, jumped five places to fifth by doubling his wealth to over United States dollars 14 billion.
