Cang Yiming, the founder and boss of Chinese video-sharing site Douyin and TikTok, has taken over the title of China’s richest person.
Cang ranked first on the “China Rich List” published by the Hurun Research Institute with a fortune of $49.3 billion. Cang, 41, who developed both popular apps under his parent company ByteDance, which he founded in 2012, rose to first on the list for the first time. Despite the US Congress’ decision to transfer or otherwise ban TikTok, citing ByteDance’s alleged ties to the Chinese government, the company, which has nearly 200 million users worldwide, has seen its global revenues increase by 30 percent in the last year. Cang, who transferred management of the company in 2021 but still has a significant stake, has also seen his personal wealth increase by 43 percent in the last year. “WATER KING” FALLS TO SECOND PLACE Cong Shanshan, the founder and boss of bottled natural spring water company Nongfu Spring, who has been at the top of the list for the last three years, dropped to second place with a fortune of $47.9 billion. His son being a US citizen and his being publicly accused of some disagreements between them following the death of the boss of a rival water company, dealt a significant blow to the revenues of Cong’s water business this year. The 71-year-old businessman’s wealth decreased by 24 percent in the last year. Cong had topped the list for the first time in 2020, surpassing Jack Ma, the founder of Chinese internet company Alibaba. Pony Ma Huating, the founder and boss of Tencent, which owns WeChat, a messaging application and application platform that performs many functions including electronic payments, and one of China’s leading internet and technology companies, came in third on the list with a fortune of $44.4 billion. While the number of WeChat users is expected to exceed 1.3 billion by the end of 2023, Ma, 53,’s fortune increased by 13 percent compared to the previous year. 18 NAMES REACHED THE TOP OF THE LIST IN 26 YEARS The list, which includes people with personal wealth exceeding 5 billion yuan (approximately $700 million), included 1,094 people this year, while the number of people on the list decreased by 12 percent compared to the previous year. While the total wealth of those on the list reached $3 trillion, their wealth decreased by 10 percent. Cang Yiming became the 18th person to rise to the top of the Hurun list in China in the 26 years since it was created. Rupert Hoogewerf, the president of the Hurun Institute and the lead researcher of the report, emphasized that only four people rose to the richest position in the US during the same period, and emphasized that this points to the dynamic aspect of the Chinese economy. In the US, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have been the names that have received the title of “richest” in the last 26 years.
