Forbes 2024 Mainland China Rich List Announced

On November 6, local time, according to the 2024 “Mainland China Rich List” released by Forbes, Zhong Shanshan continued to be the richest man in mainland China with US$50.8 billion, Ma Huateng ranked second with US$46.8 billion, and Zhang Yiming ranked third with a wealth of US$45.6 billion.

Forbes said that Zhong Shanshan, the founder of Nongfu Spring, who is facing a fierce price war, has seen his wealth shrink by US$9.3 billion compared with last year, and his total wealth has dropped to US$50.8 billion, but it does not prevent him from becoming the richest man in mainland China for four consecutive years.

The person with the largest increase in wealth is Ma Huateng, chairman of Tencent Holdings. His total wealth increased by US$14.7 billion to US$46.8 billion, rising two places in the ranking and currently ranking second. This is also his return to this position since 2020. Tencent’s stock price has risen 49% in the past year due to increased revenue from online games, streaming services and advertising.

Zhang Yiming, the founder of ByteDance, dropped one place to third place, and his net worth increased by 5% to US$45.6 billion. His product TikTok faces overseas regulatory challenges. In May this year, ByteDance sued the US government to overturn a law requiring it to sell short video applications, otherwise it would face a nationwide ban.

Pinduoduo founder Huang Zheng fell to fourth place, although he added $7.7 billion in wealth to a total of $43.9 billion.

Forbes pointed out that China’s series of measures to promote economic growth have injected vitality into the stock market. Since the wealth was measured last year, the CSI 300 Index has risen by 12%, and the total wealth of the top 100 richest people has returned to $1 trillion, an increase of 15% from $895 billion last year. The minimum net worth threshold for entering the top 100 of this list has also increased from $3.4 billion in 2023 to $3.9 billion. A total of 60 entrepreneurs have increased their wealth this year, but 22 entrepreneurs have declined in wealth.

However, according to the “2024 Hurun Rich List” released by Hurun Research Institute, Zhang Yiming was ranked first at the time. The list released by Hurun shows that Zhang Yiming’s wealth increased by 105 billion yuan compared with last year, and he became China’s richest man for the first time with 350 billion yuan. He is the 18th richest man in China in the past 26 years and the first self-made richest man born in the 1980s. Zhong Shanshan ranks second.