A brand new e-commerce tycoon is shaking up the rankings of China’s rich. Colin Huang, the founding father of PDD Holdings, which owns the e-commerce platforms Pinduoduo and Temu, is now the third-richest individual in China, in accordance with the newest Hurun China Wealthy Checklist. Huang’s fortune swelled by nearly $14 billion to hit $37.2 billion, leaping ahead seven locations in comparison with final 12 months.
Hurun pointed to Pinduoduo’s sturdy home development and Temu’s speedy abroad success to clarify Huang’s sudden fortunes. The tycoon has a 26.5% stake in PDD Holdings, in accordance with the corporate’s 2022 annual report.
The Pinduoduo founder jumped forward of lots of his tech contemporaries, like NetEase CEO William Ding, ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming and Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who fell to tenth place. Ma was in first place as lately as 2020.
Simply two different Chinese language enterprise leaders are wealthier than Huang, in accordance with Hurun: Zhong Shanshan, the CEO of Nongfu Spring, China’s largest bottled water provider, and Tencent founder Pony Ma.
Who’s Colin Huang?
Colin Huang based Pinduoduo, his fourth try at beginning an organization, in 2015. The Chinese language e-commerce platform pioneered “group shopping for,” the place prospects may work collectively to place in a bulk order with producers to scale back price. Pinduoduo additionally linked farmers instantly with customers via its on-line market, permitting growers to bypass middlemen.
Prospects in China’s much less outstanding cities flocked to the platform as a result of its decrease prices. Pinduoduo debuted on the Nasdaq trade in 2018 in an IPO that valued the corporate at $32.4 billion. The e-commerce firm is now price $143 billion.
Huang stepped down as Pinduoduo’s chairman in 2021, citing a want to focus extra on his private curiosity in life sciences.
Pinduoduo launched a profitable enterprise into the U.S. market in Sept. 2022 with Temu, which presents low costs for on a regular basis merchandise. The brand new platform surged in recognition after its launch final 12 months, even overtaking its fellow Chinese language e-commerce firm, the quick fashion-oriented Shein. Temu, now the highest buying app on the U.S. app retailer, first beat Shein in gross sales in Might, and has since consolidated its lead, in accordance with a Bloomberg calculation.
Pinduoduo renamed itself to PDD Holdings in February, and likewise began itemizing its main tackle as Dublin, as an alternative of Shanghai, in filings with the U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee.
PDD Holdings has been recovering from the lows of the COVID pandemic. For the quarter ending June, the corporate generated $7.2 billion in income, a 66% year-on-year soar. On the time, co-CEO Zhao Jiazhen famous that “customers’ growing willingness to buy” was serving to the corporate.
Overtaking Jack Ma
Huang’s fortune stands in distinction to his fellow e-commerce tycoon, Jack Ma. The Alibaba founder dropped a rating to hit tenth on this 12 months’s Hurun China Wealthy Checklist, as a result of an extra drop within the worth of fintech agency Ant Group. Ma, who as soon as topped Hurun’s checklist, has misplaced $35 billion since his peak web price of $58.8 billion in 2020.
Beijing has put Ma and his two firms, Alibaba and Ant Group, in its regulatory crosshairs because the tech tycoon brazenly criticized China’s monetary regulators at a convention in Shanghai in October 2020. Authorities then pulled Ant Group’s $35 billion Shanghai itemizing in November. China’s central financial institution later ordered Ant to restructure, and Ma ceded management of Ant Group final January. Ant was additionally fined near $1 billion earlier this 12 months, which analysts seen as a potential finish to China’s years-long crackdown on its tech giants.
The nation has 895 billionaires, 51 fewer than the 12 months earlier than, in accordance with Hurun. But the nation nonetheless has the most important variety of billionaires, forward of the U.S.
