ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming has ascended to the top of China’s Rich List with an impressive $49.3 billion personal fortune, according to the latest Hurun China Rich List released Tuesday. Zhang, 41, who stepped down as ByteDance’s CEO in 2021, is now the 18th individual to hold this position since the list’s inception 26 years ago.
Zhang surpassed Zhong Shanshan, the bottled water magnate, whose net worth declined by 24% to $47.9 billion, dropping him to second place. The strong financial performance of ByteDance, including a 30% increase in global revenue to $110 billion last year, has been a key factor in Zhang’s rise, despite ongoing legal challenges regarding its U.S. operations.
In third place is Tencent’s reserved founder, Pony Ma, followed by PDD Holdings’ Colin Huang. Although PDD’s popular e-commerce platforms, Pinduoduo and Temu, continue to see strong revenue growth, Huang’s ranking fell to fourth from last year.
Overall, the Hurun list saw a notable reduction in Chinese billionaires, dropping by 142 to a total of 753—a decline of more than a third from its peak in 2021.
“China’s economy and stock markets faced a challenging year,” noted Hurun Report Chairman Rupert Hoogewerf, highlighting the most pronounced downturns in real estate, while consumer electronics gained momentum, with Xiaomi’s founder, Lei Jun, adding $5 billion to his wealth.
Sectors like solar panels, lithium batteries, and electric vehicles saw declines, driven by intense competition, market oversupply, and tariff threats, with Hoogewerf noting that fortunes in solar plummeted up to 80% from their 2021 highs, while battery and EV sectors were down 50% and 25% respectively.
