SHANGHAI — The number of Chinese individuals worth more than 5 billion yuan ($690 million) has fallen 15% from its peak in 2021, reflecting the property crisis-plagued economic slowdown and competitive e-commerce landscape.
That is according to Shanghai-based Hurun Research Institute, which released its latest list of China’s wealthiest people on Tuesday. The total wealth of the 1,241 individuals on the list dropped by 4% to $3.2 trillion compared to last year, with some 898 individuals seeing their worth decline or remain unchanged.
“Whilst the number of dollar billionaires from China has dropped by 51 in one year and 290 in two years, it is worth noting that China is still the ‘billionaire capital of the world’ with 895 billionaires, almost 200 ahead of the U.S. and more than triple the number in India,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, the report’s chairman and chief researcher.
Zhong Shanshan, of Nongfu spring water fame, topped the rich list for the third straight year with $62 billion, followed by Pony Ma Huateng of internet giant Tencent with $38.6 billion.
The wealth of Wang Jianlin, founder of real estate developer Dalian Wanda Group, declined by $7.3 billion and topped the loser list, which also included Richard Liu of JD.com.
“Going global” has been one of the key sources of growth, Hoogewerf said.
The marketplace app Temu, the most downloaded app so far this year in the U.S., made Colin Huang Zheng of e-commerce company Pinduoduo the fastest riser, worth $37.2 billion. Other gainers included Xu Yangtian of fashion platform Shein, Ye Guofu and Yang Yunyun from retailer Miniso and Wang Chuanfu of automaker BYD.
Li Shufu of Geely, another automaker, is a newcomer in this year’s Top 10, with $24.1 billion in wealth, replacing Qin Yinglin and Qian Ying of pork producer Muyuan.
Once topping the rich list, Alibaba Group’s Jack Ma retreated to 10th place, reflecting the decline in the valuation of its financial arm, Ant Group.
Xu Jiayin of debt-laden property developer Evergrande Group still made the list based on dividends paid out in the previous year, even though he is being investigated on suspicion of “illegal activities.”
Changes in the Chinese economic landscape in recent years have resulted in more wealthy individuals in the health care and advanced technology sectors, the report said, replacing those in real estate and traditional manufacturing.
Hoogewerf said, “80% of the Hurun list [compared to] 10 years ago are new faces, showing that wealth creation in China has gone through a massive change.”
One example is Taiwan-based Samuel Chen, who broke into the Top 100 list thanks to the listing of pharmaceutical platform Polaris and a stake in videoconferencing platform Zoom.
Jakarta-based Li Jie of courier company J&T Global Express plus Wang Xiaokun and Liu Weihong of tea brand ChaPanda are other newcomers.
Hurun’s rich list is based on individuals’ shareholdings in their listed entities as of Sept. 1. For nonlisted companies, the value of their wealth is calculated based on comparisons with listed equivalents.
Some notable entrepreneurs, such as Haier’s Zhang Ruimin and PingAn’s Peter Ma, are not on the list because Hurun was not able to find reliable data on their holdings, the report said.
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