Alibaba founder Jack Ma is no longer China's richest man. According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Ma Huateng, who is the founder and CEO of Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings (TCEHY), has surpassed Jack Ma as China's richest man with a net worth of $50 billion.
Tencent Holdings (TCEHY), country's largest game developer has dethroned Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. as Asia's most-valuable company, with its shares rising above HK$500 in intraday trading Wednesday for the first time. Shares of Pinduoduo, a Groupon-like shopping app also known as PDD, has more than doubled this year.
Tencent's recent stock surge has added more wealth to Huateng's portfolio. Tencent's Pony Ma, worth US$50 billion, has surpassed Jack Ma's US$48 billion fortune, becoming China's richest person.
Ma Huateng, who goes by "Pony Ma" (where 'Ma' means 'horse' in Chinese), may not be as global a figure as Jack Ma, but he is one of the most recognized faces in China
Tencent Holdings and Ma Huateng
Ma Huateng AKA Pony Ma co-founded Tencent, along with four classmates, in 1998. According to his company's bio, he received his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer and Applied Engineering from Shenzhen University in Guangdong, China. Pony Ma owns a 7 per cent stake in the company and pocketed about US$757 million from selling some 14.6 million of his Tencent shares this year, data complied by Bloomberg show.
“Tencent’s online games segment will probably perform strongly through the Covid-19 pandemic, and most of its other businesses are relatively unscathed,” said Vey-Sern Ling, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst.
Before co-founding Tencent, he worked at China Motion Telecom Development Limited, a telecommunications services provider.