‘Free Fire’ game creator Forrest Li earns a spot on the world’s billionaires list
Sea founder Li chose his English name after watching the movie ‘Forest Gump’
Forrest Li is now a billionaire at the age of 41. The founder of Singapore’s tech unicorn, Sea, made it onto the world’s billionaires list thanks to a 13.8 per cent stake worth roughly US$1 billion, Bloomberg reported on Friday last week.
The company owns gaming service Garena and e-commerce site Shopee, both of which are expected to see a spike in earnings in the coming year, Bloomberg said. It also counts Chinese giant Tencent as a shareholder.
China-born Li, now a Singapore citizen, once worked for Motorola in Shanghai, and graduated with an MBA from Stanford University.
Business Insider compiled five facts to know about the new billionaire:
1. Li is only the second person in the world to become a billionaire thanks to an online game. The first was Tim Sweeney, creator of Fortnite, a top game worldwide.
Li founded gaming company Garena – later rebranded as Sea – in 2009.
Bloomberg attributed Li’s new wealth mostly to the success of Garena’s game Free Fire, which Bloomberg dubbed “the Fortnite of Singapore”.
Free Fire is the world’s fourth most downloaded game, with more than 350 million registered users.
2. Last year, Li was the 42nd richest person in Singapore.
According to Forbes’ list of Singapore’s 50 Richest People, Li entered the ranks of Singapore’s wealthiest after listing Sea on the New York Stock Exchange in October 2017.
His net worth in 2018 was US$545 million, beating out the only other person in the gaming industry: Razer founder Tan Min-Liang (45th place). Both men are the same age.