Nongfu Spring CEO Zhong Shanshan tops Hurun China Rich List for third time

A total of 1,241 entrepreneurs with personal wealth of 5 billion yuan ($684.3 million) or above made to the China Rich List 2023, conducted by the Hurun Research Institute in association with baijiu brand Hengchang Shaofang, with Nongfu Spring CEO Zhong Shanshan topping the list for the third time with a personal wealth of 450 billion yuan.

Pony Ma Huateng, CEO of Chinese internet giant Tencent, ranked the second on the list with a personal wealth reaching 280 billion yuan, an increase of 65 billion yuan in 2022.

Colin Huang Zheng made it to the top three for the first time with a personal wealth of 270 billion yuan, an increase of 100 billion yuan compared with last year and the highest growth on the list. His jump banked on Pinduoduo.com's rapid growth and overseas expansion as its e-commerce platform Temu became one of the most downloaded apps in the US.

China meanwhile still remains the home for the world's most billionaires with 895 entrepreneurs with personal wealth exceeding $1 billion, followed by the US and India.

Despite a year-on-year decline of 5 percent or 64 people in the total number of listed entrepreneurs, the figure is still more than 40 percent higher than the figure before the COVID-19 epidemic, while 80 percent of listed entrepreneurs are new compared with a decade ago. The total wealth for listed entrepreneurs declined 4 percent year-on-year or one trillion yuan to 23.5 trillion yuan.

Listed entrepreneurs for 2023 come from a total of 144 Chinese cities, an increase of 12 percent compared with 129 five years ago, as many cities in China have been trying to develop local economy catering with specialties while stepping up supportive efforts for local entrepreneurship and innovation.

The report noted that entrepreneurs with more wealth growth over the past year came mainly from sectors such as online gaming, semiconductors, software services, and food and beverage. Entrepreneurs experiencing more wealth declines were largely from industries such as real estate, the photovoltaic industry and steel industry.

China has been rapping up efforts to boost economic development. Supportive measures have been implemented to help key sectors such as the private economy and the property sector.

Chinese first-tier megacities led a wave of home price recovery in September, with new home prices of China's four first-tier cities, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, staying flat month-on-month in September, reversing a month-on-month decline of 0.2 percent in August, according to official data.