Jack Ma no longer the richest person in China, Tencent’s Ma Huateng takes crown

Jack Ma has been displaced as China’s richest man, according to reports emanating from the Asian country.

A reshuffling of the ranking of the richest people in China was done after the country’s largest game developer, Tencent Holdings Ltd., surpassed Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. as Asia’s most valuable company, with its shares rising above HK$500 in intraday trading for the first time on Wednesday

Similarly, a Groupon-like shopping app, Pinduoduo, also known as PDD, has more than doubled this year, reports say.

This development, it was gathered, caused the wealth of their founders to rise, albeit with a twist.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Tencent’s Pony Ma, worth $50 billion, has surpassed Jack Ma’s $48 billion fortune, making him China’s richest person.

Meanwhile, Colin Huang of PDD, whose net worth stands at $43 billion, edged real estate mogul, Hui Ka Yan, of China Evergrande Group out of the top three earlier this year.

However, the digitization of workplaces and change in consumers’ habits following the outbreak of COVID-19, boosted the shares of many internet companies.

This has also caused tech tycoons to dominate the ranks of China’s richest people as they occupy four of the top five spots- Ding Lei of Tencent peer NetEase Inc. follows China Evergrande’s Hui.

In the meantime, Tencent, it was learnt, has come a long way since hitting a low in 2018, after China froze the approval process for new games.