HONG KONG (AP) – ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming tops China’s richest list, but many of them have seen their net worths plummet in the past year, according to the Hurun Institute.
The institute, which publishes the Hurun China Rich List every year, revealed that the total wealth of entrepreneurs on this year’s list was $3 trillion, down 10% from the previous year.
The number of billionaires based on net worth in US dollar terms also decreased by 142 to 753. Hrun has tallied 1,185 billionaires since 2021.
“Due to a difficult year for China’s economy and stock market, the Hurun China Rich List has experienced an unprecedented decline for the third year in a row,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher at the Hurun Report.
According to Hurun, ByteDance’s Zhang ranked first for the first time this year with a net worth of $49.3 billion. ByteDance, the parent company of popular short video platforms Douyin and TikTok, grew to $110 billion in revenue last year.
He is also the first person born in the 1980s to top the Hurun List.
Zhong Shanshan, a major bottled water company, faced backlash in February when its brand Nongfu Chun was criticized by consumers for being disloyal to China due to the bottle design. dropped to second place with $47.9 billion.
The backlash wiped out billions of dollars in Nongfu Chun’s market value.
In third place was Tencent founder Pony Ma, with a net worth of $44.4 billion, and the gaming company saw an increase in revenue.
Only 54 new names were added to this year’s list of China’s richest people, the lowest number in 20 years. The new additions are Charlwin Mao and Miranda Qu Fang, founders of Xiaohongshu, a social media and lifestyle platform popular with young users.
China’s economy is facing a real estate crisis and a volatile stock market, and is lagging in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic. Policymakers are expected to announce a massive stimulus package to boost consumption and spending, which has slumped in recent months.
