Jack Ma becomes world's richest Chinese

Ma Yun, or Jack Ma, founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, has topped the latest edition of the Hurun Global Rich List for 2019.

Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba Group attends the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, January 23, 2019. [Photo: VCG]

With a net worth of 260 billion yuan ($39 billion), 55-year old Ma Yun and family ranked 22nd on the list, up 4 spots. Ma Huateng, chairman and CEO of Tencent with a net worth of $38 billion, ranked 24th and became the second wealthiest Chinese in this year's list.

Evergrande Group chairman Xu Jiayin became the third-richest Chinese with a $37 billion net worth, placing 26th on the Loong Palace · Hurun Global Rich List 2019, a ranking of the US-Dollar billionaires in the world.

According to Hurun, 769 listed people saw their wealth increase and 201 new faces emerged, led by China and the US with 52 and 39 respectively. They were followed by India with 23 newcomers.

Thirty-nine-year old Huang Zheng, chairman and CEO of online discounter Pinduoduo, led the new faces, shooting straight to the top 100 with wealth of $15 billion.

With 658 billionaires, China leads the world for the fourth year in number of billionaires, 74 ahead of the US with 584. The TMT or technology, media and telecom industry, is the main source of wealth, followed by real estate, investments, manufacturing and retail, the report said.