Big changes to rich list

The founders of ByteDance and Pinduoduo have surpassed Pony Ma Huateng of Tencent (0700) and Jack Ma Yun of Alibaba (9988) to become the second and third wealthiest men in China, says a yearly rich list published by mainland media New Fortune.

With an aggregate wealth of 310.5 billion yuan (HK$349 billion), the founder of TikTok's parent company ByteDance, Zhang Yiming, moved up two spots to number 2. The third place went to Colin Huang Zheng, the founder of the US-listed e-commerce giant Pinduoduo, with a personal fortune of 260.36 billion yuan.

The wealth of seven billionaires in the top 10 shrank compared to last year, including the founder of Nongfu Spring (9633), Zhong Shanshan. Still, Zhong topped the New Fortune Top 500 Rich List for the third year, with a net worth of 456.2 billion yuan.

Pony Ma was unseated by Huang and fell to fourth place with an estimated wealth of 238.9 billion yuan.

Meanwhile, Jack Ma returned to the top 10 from No 14 last year, ranking sixth with a net worth of 146.98 billion yuan. Wang Chuanfu, the founder of BYD (1211), remained in 11th place with 133.6 billion yuan.