HONG KONG: Tencent Holdings Ltd’s US$40 billion surge this week and the recent ascent of Pinduoduo Inc have reshuffled the ranking of China’s richest people.
And Colin Huang of PDD, whose net worth stands at US$43 billion, has squeezed real estate mogul Hui Ka Yan of China Evergrande Group out of the top three earlier this year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Now tech tycoons are dominating the ranks of China’s richest people. They occupy four of the top five spots: Ding Lei of Tencent peer NetEase Inc follows China Evergrande’s Hui.Tencent has come a long way since hitting a low in 2018, when China froze the approval process for new games.
“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.