Hurun China Rich List 2024

• Hurun Research found 1,094 individuals with more than CNY 5 billion (equivalent to US$700 million), down 12% or 147 individuals from last year. The total wealth of entrepreneurs on the list was US$3tn, down 10% from last year.

  
  

• Number of dollar billionaires down 142 to 753. This means China has lost 432 or just over a third of its billionaires since the high water mark of 1185 in 2021. There are 132 or 21% more billionaires than five years ago, when there were only 621.

  
  

• ‘Short Video King’ Zhang Yiming, 41, topped the Hurun China Rich List for the first time with US$49.3bn and becoming the 18th Number One in China in 26 years. ByteDance's global revenue grew 30% last year to US$110 billion, with users in the US of its TikTok app closing in on 200 million.

  
  

• ‘Bottled Water King’ Zhong Shanshan, 70, lost his top spot for the first time in three years, dropping down to second with US$47.9bn, down 24% or US$15.5bn, the biggest drop of the year, after a backlash in February against his bottled water business Nongfu Spring. Zhong’s other main source of wealth, infectious disease diagnostics business Wantai BioPharm had a good year.

• Pony Ma Huateng, 53, down one place to third with US$44.4bn, up 13%. Tencent’s revenues rose 9.8%, while profits rose 36% on the back of a growth in its overseas games. By the end of last year, WeChat had 1.3 billion users.

• 54 new faces, the lowest in 20 years. The biggest number came from Taiwan, on the back of a good stock market performance and the boom in computing power. Others included Charlwin Mao Wenchao, 39, and Miranda Qu Fang, 39, of popular social media app Xiaohongshu with US$2.5bn and US$1.7bn, as well as Zhou Shengfu, 46, of freight logistics platform Huolala, with US$2.4bn.

  
  

• 201 dropped off this year, bringing the total number of drop-offs since the 2021 peak to 673 individuals.

• Industrial Products and Consumer Products led with 13% and 11% of the Hurun China Rich List, showing China’s manufacturing strength, followed by Healthcare with 9.7%.

• 127 were 40 or under, up 26, of which 32 were self-made, down 7. 

• 30 were born in the 1990s, 11 more than last year, of which 3 were self-made. Seattle-based Wang Shuo of HR services platform Deel overtook Nie Yunchen of bubble tea brand Heytea to become the richest self-made Under30 with US$990mn.

• The average age is 61, two years older than last year.

• Shanghai overtook Shenzhen for the first time since 2013 to become the city with the highest concentration of entrepreneurs on the list after Beijing. Beijing was still top, but by the smallest margin since records began, only three ahead of second-placed Shanghai. Taipei jumped to 6th place.

• 153 live in Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan, up 11, accounting for 14% of the list. Of those, 97 reside in Taiwan, 15 more than last year, and 56 in Hong Kong, 4 fewer than last year. 30 live overseas, led by the US and Singapore. Singapore jumped 6 places to 14th most popular city to live in for the Hurun China Rich List.

• 23.5% are women, similar to last year, of which 70% are self-made. Kelly Zong Fuli, 42, overtook Kwong Siu-ching to become China's richest woman for the first time.

• Delegates to the NPC or CPPCC up from 6.5% of the list last year to 7% this year. 39 were delegates to the CPPCC, down 3, and 36 delegates to the NPC, down 3.

• 7 from last year’s list passed away: Tang Xiao’ou of SenseTime in December at the age of 55; Xu Gang of LB in May at the age of 61; Cai Hongzhu of Hubei Daohuaxiang in December at the age of 73; Shen Wenrong of Suzhou-based Sha Steel in June at the age of 78; former Number One Zong Qinghou of Hangzhou-based Wahaha in February at the age of 79; Hui Man-Long of Chi Mei in November at the age of 96.

  
  

• Those born in the Year of the Rabbit continue to be the best wealth creators, with the most individuals on the list for an unprecedented 13th year. Dragons and Snakes were second and third. Those born in the Year of the Horse had a good year, whilst those born in the Year of the Rooster dropped down the most.

(29 October 2024, Shanghai) The Hurun Research Institute today released, in association with premium baijiu brand Hengchang Shaofang, the Hurun China Rich List 2024, a ranking of the richest individuals in China. The cut-off was CNY 5 billion (equivalent to US$700 million), and wealth calculations were from 30 August. This is the 26th year of the list.

Hurun Research found 1,094 individuals with more than CNY 5 billion (equivalent to US$700 million), down 12% or 147 individuals from last year. Total wealth dropped 10% to US$2.97tn. 331 saw their wealth increase, of which 54 were new faces. 967 saw their wealth decrease or remain unchanged, of which 201 dropped off the list. The Top 3 cities with the highest concentration of entrepreneurs on the list were Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, followed by Hong Kong and Hangzhou. The average age was 61.

Stock markets in China have had a difficult year, with Shenzhen down 20%, HK down 2% and Shanghai down 9%. Nasdaq rose 26%. The renminbi fell 2.5% against the dollar. Bitcoin surged 130%.

Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun Report Chairman and Chief Researcher, said:

“The Hurun China Rich List has shrunk for an unprecedented third year running, as China’s economy and stock markets had a difficult year. The number of individuals on the list was down by 12% in the past year to just under 1100 individuals and 25% from the high point of 2021, when we managed to find 1465 individuals with CNY 5 billion (equivalent to US$700 million).”

“Half of our entrepreneurs on this year's list were not on the list just five years ago and 8 out of 10 were not there 10 years ago. The old guard, represented by real estate developers, have given way to a new guard of tech, new energy, consumer electronics, especially smart phones, ecommerce, especially cross-border ecommerce, consumer products and healthcare. The stories of the individuals on the Hurun China Rich List tell the story of the Chinese economy. The likes of Robin Zeng of lithium battery maker CATL wasn’t even on the list ten years ago, neither was Li Zhenguo of solar panel maker Longi. In smart phones, Lei Jun of Xiaomi has tripled in size in ten years, whilst Wang Laichun of Luxshare Precision has risen seven-fold. The likes of Oppo’s Chen Mingyong, Vivo’s Shen Wei, Lens’ Zhou Qunfei, DJI’s Wang Tao were not on the list ten years ago. In ecommerce, Pinduoduo’s Huang Zheng was not on the list ten years ago, neither was Shein’s Chris Xu. In healthcare, Xu Hang and Li Xiting of medical equipment producer MindRay have seen their wealth rise 20-fold. The rise of mobiles has helped Tencent’s Pony Ma and NetEase’s Ding Lei each add US$30bn, whilst this year’s Number One Zhang Yiming and Wang Xing of delivery app Meituan were not on the list ten years ago. The rise of Bitcoin has added US$20bn to CZ Zhao, whilst the rise of consumer products has added US$30bn to Midea’s He Xiangjian. In the same period, real estate has suffered with the likes of former Number One Wang Jianlin of Wanda seeing his wealth drop 90%. There are no significant AI entrepreneurs on the list yet.”

“Zhang Yiming is the 18th new Number One we have had in China in just 26 years. The US, by comparison, has only four Number Ones: Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. This gives an indication of some of the dynamism in the Chinese economy. 2024 has been a special year to date with three Number Ones: Zhong Shanshan at the beginning of the year, Huang Zheng of Pinduoduo in the middle of the year and now Zhang Yiming.”

“Zhang Yiming, 41, is the first China Number One born in the 1980s. The youngest ever Number Ones were Chen Tianqiao of Shanda, who became Number One at the age of 31, and Ding Lei of Netease at the age of 32. By comparison, Bill Gates became the Number One in the US at the age of 37, whilst Elon Musk at the age of 49.”

“The new generation of entrepreneurs in China are much more international than their predecessors. Zhang Yiming, 41, went global with TikTok, Colin Huang, 44, with shopping app Temu, Chris Xu, 41, with fast fashion app Shein and Cai Haoyu, 37, with online gaming platform Mihoyo.”

“This year has seen the lowest number of new faces in twenty years, with only 54 new faces making the list, as a result of only a handful of IPOs and a slow economy. Most new faces this year came from Taiwan, which has enjoyed a relatively strong stock market, underpinned by its semiconductor industry.”

“2024 has been a good year for smart phones, as Chinese brands take a strong share of the global market, and semiconductors, on the back of the boom in AI. Smart phone marker Lei Jun of Xiaomi and smart phone supplier Terry Guo of Hon Hai both added US$5bn to their wealth. Other large mobile phone suppliers that had a good year included Wang Laichun of Luxshare Precision, Zhou Qunfei of Lens and Jiang Bing of Goer. Pharma entrepreneurs Zhong Huijuan of Hansoh and Zhu Yi of Biokin both enjoyed a good year. Others of note include CZ Zhao Changpeng of Binance, who added US$13bn despite being in custody in the US, as the volume of crypto transactions shot up on the back of a doubling of the value of Bitcoin.”

“Solar panel, lithium battery and EV makers have had a challenging year, as competition intensified, leading to a glut, and the threat of tariffs added to uncertainties. Solar panel makers saw their wealth down as much as 80% from the 2021 peak, whilst battery and EV makers were down by half and a quarter respectively. Other industries that had a bad year included Real Estate, Vaccine makers and medical service providers, cyber security and financial software providers. Robin Zeng of battery maker CATL was down US$7bn, Li Xiang of Li Auto was down US$5.1bn. Others that were down not insignificantly included Li Shufu of Geely, He Xiaopeng of Xpeng, William Li Bin of Nio and Wei Jianjun of Great Wall Motors. Real estate was down again, with Wang Jianlin of Wanda, Wu Yajun of LongFor and Li Hua of Shenzhen-based Excellence all down, and the likes of former billionaires like Jiang Zhaobai of Pengxin and Huang Wei of Xinhu even dropping off the list. Vaccine maker Jiang Rensheng of Chongqing-based Zhifei was down a further 40% to US$5.7bn, as the post-Covid market realigned itself. Jiang has now gone down US$16 billion, since his high point in 2021. Ophthalmologists Chen Bang of Changsha-based Aier and Su Qingcan of Xiamen-based Huaxia Eye were down 40% and 60% to US$6.5bn and US$1.1bn respectively. Li Ge of CRO business Wuxi PharmaTech and Wang Jian of Shenzhen-based genetic disease diagnostics business BGI were down 28% and 40% to US$4.6n and US$2bn respectively, as their share prices continued to suffer from the pressure of being blacklisted by the US government. Other drops of note include the biggest single drop of the year, which came from last year’s Number One Zhong Shanshan, who lost US$15.5bn.”

“Ever since our first list back in 1999, Beijing has always been the city with the most entrepreneurs on the list, but the gap with second place has been reduced to just the narrowest of margins since the high point of 2016, when Beijing had 127 more entrepreneurs on the list than second place. At this rate, expect Shanghai and Shenzhen to overtake Beijing in the next year. Shanghai this year overtook Shenzhen for the first time since 2013.”

“R&D spend has become a key metric for bigger companies to measure their innovation. Ren Zhengfei’s Huawei invested US$22bn into R&D, accounting for 23% of their revenues. Pony Ma’s Tencent and Jack Ma’s Alibaba invested US$9bn and US$7.5bn respectively into R&D, whilst He Xiangjian’s Midea invested US$2bn into R&D last year.”

“Hurun Report has been promoting entrepreneurship through its lists and research since 1999. You can think of the rich list as an annual snapshot of China's private sector with the stories of these entrepreneurs telling the story of China's economy. I would like to thank our title sponsor Hengchang Shaofang, a premium baijiu brand from the Maotai region, for partnering with us for the fifth year running.”

Deng Hong, Founder of Hengchang Shaofang, Global Premium Wines and Spirits Group, said: “Quality, brand, scale and planning for the long-term lie at the core of Hengchang Shaofang’s hundred-year story. This, coupled with the operational strength of Hengchang Shaofang’s owner Global Premium Wines and Spirits Group, has won the respect of the market. Hengchang Shaofang is continuously improving the quality of our product. We are meeting demand by expanding our production in the Maotai region, by increasing our storage capacity and by responding to the national call to revitalize the rural economy. For us, it is about making a bottle of baijiu with ‘heart’ and the ‘spirit of craftsmanship’. We owe a strong duty of care to the century old brand of Hengchang Shaofang.  Hengchang Shaofang is delighted to join with leading rich list producer Hurun Report to release the Hengchang Shaofang • Hurun China Rich List 2024 and celebrate entrepreneurship and responsible wealth creation, through the telling of the stories of China’s successful entrepreneurs.”  

About Global Premium Wines and Spirits Group (GPWS)

Global Premium Wines and Spirits Group (GPWS) was founded in 2017 with huge investment by Mr. Deng Hong, an entrepreneur. He is also the founder of Jiuzhai Paradise International Convention & Holiday Center, Century New International Convention & Exhibition Center, Global Centre, and Hengchang Shaofang of Global Premium Wines and Spirits Group, and his business reach spans across multiple industries. Today, he is engaged in Baijiu industry, integrating, building and cooperating with excellent liquor production and circulation enterprises worldwide.

In order to incubate influential and representative product brands among various kinds of liquors and sell them, and actively carry out diversified cooperation with domestic high-quality enterprises.

Under an increasingly intertwined global economy, Mr. Deng Hong sees great potential in the Chinese liquor market. He foresaw that as the economy grows, consumer attitudes will change and consumers will pay more and more attention to product quality in the future. Global Premium Wines and Spirits Group has carefully planned its industrial layout and established a baijiu production area pattern with ‘Moutai Town, Guizhou’ as the core and ‘Qionglai, Sichuan’ and ‘Luzhou, Sichuan’ as the two wings. The three production areas focus on the production of maotai-flavor and strong liquor, and have successfully created a series of high-quality liquor brands, forming a complementary and diversified product line to meet the different consumers' pursuit of taste and quality.

About Hengchang Shaofang

In 2017, Global Premium Wines and Spirits Group (GPWS) acquired Hengchang Shaofang brand in Maotai Town, creating a century old brand revival plan.

Hengchang Shaofang has been recognized by the market with its excellent quality and profound brand, and has always followed the brand development strategy of "quality, brand, scale and long-term", and continued to focus on the long-term development goal of ‘growing good sorghum and making good wine’.  

In 2021, it achieved nearly CNY 1.5 billion turnover. According to the strategic plan of market changes and keeping pace with the times, it built a good foundation for breaking 10 billion yuan in the future. In addition, Hengchang Shaofang has worked with Zhongyu Holding Group, Hurun Report, Xinchao Media Group and other well-known enterprises to develop co-branded high-end products based on the core IP, continuing to lead China's high-end baijiu market

In 2022, it further increased its brand investment by joining hands with Focus Media, Xinchao Media, CITY-MEDIA and other elevator medias, laying out 25 core cities across China, with advertisements appearing on more than 1 million lift frames and streaming media screens, and stationed in nearly 100,000 communities. Up to now, the total advertising investment has exceeded 500 million RMB, and the omni-channel empowerment has helped Hengchang brand develop rapidly into a real super brand.

On 8th February 2023，Hengchang Shaofang started the 30,000 tonnes brewing base project, which is located in Tsubaki Village, Moutai Town, located in the core production area of China's maotai-flavor baijiu. The overall land is 1,500 acres, and the first phase of the land area is 300 acres, main business: Moutai Town Hengchang Intercontinental Hotel, Hengchang Shaofang Research Institute, Hengchang Shaofang Contemporary Art Centre, Hengchang Shaofang traditional brewing area, Hengchang Shaofang Vaults, etc., is expected to be opened to the public in the second half of 2024.

In April 2024, the signing ceremony of ‘InterContinental Hengchang Hotel Moutai Town’ was held between Moutai Town Hengchang Brewery Company Limited and InterContinental Hotels Group in Renhuai City, Guizhou Province, introducing the InterContinental Hotel brand to Guizhou. The Intercontinental Hotel Hengchang has a total of 193 high-end specialty guest rooms, which will become another landmark building in Moutai Town after the completion of the hotel, providing super five-star hotel services for tourists visiting Moutai Town and the brewing base, and integrating higher-standard international hotel services into the culture of baijiu travelling.

Up to now, Hengchang Shaofang has completed the layout of key provinces, first- and second-tier cities and key prefecture-level cities across China. Provincial platform companies have been built in Sichuan, Jiangsu, Fujian, Yunnan, Shandong, Henan, Tianjin, Xinjiang, Hunan, Guangdong, Liaoning, Heilongjiang and Shanghai, and the number of key cities continues to increase; Hengchang Shaofang tasting pavilions have been opened simultaneously in the core cities of Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Zhengzhou, Xi'an, Jinan, Luoyang, Qingdao, Jining, Zibo, Taizhou, Xianyang, Longnan and other cities.

Honors:

1. In 2017, won the Sensory Quality Award of the National Liquor Judges of China

   
   

2. In 2019, won the Tax Contribution Award of the Fourth RedSorghum Award in Zunyi city.

3. In 2020, won the Golden Award and the 2020 High-end Maotai-flavor Liquor Award.

4. In 2020, won the China Liquor Qingyun Award for Year's High-end Product.

5. In 2021, won the Best Performance of High-end Maotai-flavor Baijiu of the 17th Hurun Best of the Best Award.

6. In 2022, won the Best Performance of High-end Maotai-flavor Baijiu of the 18th Hurun Best of the Best Award.

7. In 2022, won the Integrity Management Award of the sixth "Red Sorghum Award" in Zunyi region.

8. In 2022, won the title of "Top Ten Famous Liquors" in the core production area (Renhuai) of Maotai-flavor Baijiu in China.

9. In 2022, won the title of "Baijiu New National Standard Quality Demonstration Product" (Tianfuchuan Liquor · Sichuan Brand Baijiu).

10. In 2022, won China Golden Cup Award - Outstanding Maotai-flavor Liquor Brand.

11. 2022 China Golden Cup Award - Chinese Liquor Star Product.

12. 2023 Honors Certified by the Municipal Party Committee and People's Government of Renhuai, Guizhou - Top 10 Private Enterprises Paying Taxes in 2022.

13. In 2023, won ‘National Safe Liquor Project - Model Enterprise’ by China Liquor Distribution Association.

14. In 2024, won the ‘Maotai-flavor Visionary Award’ from Guizhou Liquor Enterprises Chamber of Commerce.

15. In 2024, won the ‘Appellation Excellent Contribution Award’ and ‘Market Exploitation Award’ from Renhuai Liquor Association of Guizhou Province.

16. In 2024, won the Silver Award of ‘China Maotai-flavor Baijiu Core Producing Region (Renhuai) Creative Packaging Design Competition’ jointly organised by China Packaging Federation and Renhuai Municipal People's Government.

17. In 2024, won the ‘Most Popular Award’ in the China-Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) Commodity Exhibition 2024 - Hengchang Shaofang-1929 Commemorative Baijiu.

18. 2024 ‘Gold Medal’, Brussels International Wine Competition 2024.

About Hurun Inc.

Promoting Entrepreneurship Through Lists and Research

Oxford, Shanghai, Mumbai

Established in the United Kingdom in 1999, Hurun is a research, media and investments group, promoting entrepreneurship through its lists and research. Widely regarded as an opinion-leader in the world of business, Hurun generated 8 billion views on the Hurun brand in 2023, mainly in China and India.

Best-known today for the Hurun Rich List series, telling the stories of the world’s successful entrepreneurs in China, India and the world, Hurun’s other key series is the Hurun Start-up series, ranking the world’s unicorns and future unicorns, as well as giving recognition to young start-up founders.

Hurun has grown to become the world’s largest researcher and list compiler of start-ups, ranking 4000 start-ups across the world through its annual unicorns list (US$1bn+), and two future unicorn lists (Gazelles from US$500m, and Cheetahs from US$300m).

For the young start-up founders, Hurun has created the Under30s, Under35s and Under40s awards, representing the cream of young entrepreneurs who have founded businesses with a social impact and worth around US$10m, US$50m and US$100m respectively.

Other lists include the Hurun Global High Schools List, ranking the world’s best independent high schools, the Hurun Philanthropy List, ranking the biggest philanthropists, the Hurun Art List, ranking the world’s most successful artists alive today.

Hurun provides research reports co-branded with some of the world’s leading financial institutions, real estate developers and regional governments.

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