Chinese tech founders bounce back on Hurun’s 2023 Rich List but number and overall wealth of billionaires drop

Chinese tech founders had the biggest gains in fortunes among the country’s richest people amid an internet sector rebound this year, but the number and overall wealth of Chinese billionaires continued to drop in the face of broader economic headwinds.

Four of the top five Chinese billionaires with the biggest wealth increases this year are tech entrepreneurs, including Pinduoduo founder Colin Huang Zheng, Tencent Holdings’ co-founder and CEO Pony Ma Huateng, miHoYo co-founder Cai Haoyu and NetEase founder and chief executive William Ding Lei, according to the latest Hurun China Rich List published on Tuesday.

Huang from Pinduoduo, the e-commerce platform owned by PDD Holdings, saw his wealth increase 100 billion yuan (US$13.67 billion) to 270 billion yuan in 2023, thanks to Pinduoduo’s domestic growth and the success of PDD’s overseas budget shopping platform Temu, according to Hurun.

Huang took third spot this year in Hurun’s overall ranking of China’s richest people, up from 10th place last year.

Tencent’s Ma also moved up three places on this year’s list, ranking as China’s second-richest person, with his fortune growing 65 billion yuan to 280 billion yuan, Hurun said. In the first half of 2023, Tencent’s total revenue grew 11 per cent from the same period last year, the company said in August.

ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming, who was China’s second-richest person last year according to the list, dropped to fifth place in 2023, with no change to his wealth, while NetEase’s Ding maintained his sixth spot despite a 45 billion yuan increase in his personal fortune.