Colin Huang Zheng, the 44-year-old founder of PDD Holdings, and Zhang Yiming, the 41-year-old founder of ByteDance, are the richest tech entrepreneurs in China, according to a list published by Chinese magazine New Fortune on Wednesday. Huang, whose wealth is largely derived from the popularity of budget e-commerce platforms Pinduoduo and Temu, has a personal wealth of 425 billion yuan (US$59 billion), followed by Zhang, whose 21 per cent stake in TikTok’s parent company gives him a personal net worth of 340 billion yuan. The two young billionaires were followed in the rankings by Tencent Holdings’ founder Pony Ma Huateng, Alibaba Group Holding’s founder Jack Ma, and NetEase founder William Ding Lei.
Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. However, China’s richest man is Zhong Shanshan, in the traditional mineral water business, with a personal wealth of 456 billion yuan, according to the list. ByteDance’s Zhang fell below Huang on the rich list, as China’s most valuable private company faces fresh pressure to sell the US operations of its flagship short video app TikTok to American investors or be banned from app stores in the country.
Few tech billionaires in China celebrate making it to the rich list, given Beijing’s regulatory crackdowns on the tech sector in recent years, and the ongoing Sino-US tech war. Huang and Zhang, who both stepped down as chairman of their respective companies, have deliberately stayed out of the public view in recent years. Chin.