FORBES ASIA

CHINA’S 100 RICHEST

WEALTH LIST

LARRY LEUNG/EPA/NEWSCOM

‘Old’ Face in a New Economy

BY RUSSELL FLANNERY WITH MAGGIE CHEN

B

ack in 2003 we

highlighted the

“wired wealth”

that emerged

on that year’s

China rich list. Featured as

No. 1: the nation’s first In-

ternet billionaire, William

Ding. His NetEase gaming

firm had staged a dramatic

rise from the ashes of the

global dot-com bust. Yet

despite the blossoming of

the Chinese Web 13 years

ago, two current giants,

Jack Ma of Alibaba and

Robin Li of Baidu, had yet

to appear among the 100

richest. Pony Ma of Ten-

cent managed to gain the last slot, with not even a tenth

of Ding’s fortune.

Fast-forward to this year, and a notably enduring “new

economy” figure has risen to No. 5: William Ding. He

passes Robin Li, who some years ago claimed the No. 1

spot that Ding pioneered for the sector. Jack Ma (also

once No. 1) and Pony Ma still ride higher, but China’s “B-

A-T” Web triumvirate has been pierced.

The long China boom continues to lift old names

and new. Sectors as long-established as real estate

and as new as entertainment yield a rotating roster of

tycoons—or in the amaz-

ing case of No. 1 Wang

Jianlin, a fortune that

draws on both as it wells

up to $33 billion, among

the world’s biggest.

Businesses tied to the

Internet have caught fire.

No. 4 Wang Wei, head of

delivery company SF Ex-

press, has benefitted from

China’s e-commerce boom;

Wang’s is the biggest dollar

rise on this year’s list after

government approval of

the company’s listing. Xu

Bo, founder of Guangzhou

Duoyi Network, joins the

list at age 38.

Notable drop-offs from the 100 this year include Li

Hejun, onetime solar sensation whose power empire

now rests nearly entirely on his original hydro plants;

Zhou Guohui, whose logistics stock—so hot a year

ago—fell despite a sectoral surge; longtime landscap-

ing queen He Qiaonv; and the telecom mogul who

would build a Nicaraguan canal, Wang Jing. (A roster

of the 400 richest Chinese is at forbes.com/china.)

Additional reporting by Li Keda, Gao Mingyue, Blair Hu,

Zhao Yifan, Elaine Mao, Rita Yang, Sue Radlauer, Kang

Jian, Monica Ning, Jennie Liu, Ryan Mac, Xiang Wang

Scoring higher again: NetEase’s William Ding.

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