ByteDance’s Zhang Yiming Becomes the First Self-Made Chinese Billionaire Born in the ’80s

On Tuesday, the Hurun Research Institute released the 2024 Rich List. 1,094 entrepreneurs with personal wealth above 5 billion yuan made it onto this year’s Hurun Rich List, a decrease of 12% (147 people) from last year. The total wealth of the listed entrepreneurs is 21 trillion yuan, down 10% from last year. The number of entrepreneurs with a wealth of over 100 billion yuan decreased by 4 from last year, to 26. The number of entrepreneurs with a wealth of over one billion US dollars decreased by 142 from last year, to 753. The average age of the listed entrepreneurs is 61, 2 years older than last year.

Zhang Yiming, the 41-year-old founder of ByteDance, increased his wealth by 105 billion yuan from last year, becoming China’s richest person for the first time with 350 billion yuan. He is the 18th richest person in China in the past 26 years and the first self-made “post-80s” richest person in China.

Zhong Sui Sui, the 70-year-old founder of Chinese beverage brand Nongfu Spring, saw his wealth decrease by 110 billion yuan last year, giving up the position of the richest person he had held for three years with 340 billion yuan, ranking second. This is mainly due to the slowdown in Nongfu Spring’s performance growth in the second quarter of this year.

Pony Ma, the 53-year-old founder of Tencent, increased his wealth by 35 billion yuan from last year, ranking third with 315 billion yuan. This is mainly due to Tencent‘s significant performance in areas such as gaming, advertising, and cloud services, which has driven the overall performance of the company.

Alibaba‘s Jack Ma, 60 years old, saw his wealth decrease by 3% from last year, ranking tenth with 165 billion yuan, the same ranking as last year. Ma Yun, who has been retired for 5 years, has 40% of his 165 billion wealth from Alibaba, 35% from investments, and the rest from Ant Group.

SEE ALSO: ByteDance Plans to Establish An AI R＆D Center in Europe