Fortunes of China's internet

BEIJING (AP) — Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba, held onto his status as China’s richest tycoon this year as surging demand for online shopping and other services during the coronavirus pandemic swelled the fortunes of internet entrepreneurs, according to a survey released Tuesday.

Ma’s fortune rose 45% percent over 2019 to $58.8 billion, according to Hurun Research Institute, which follows the country’s wealthy.

Ma Huateng, founder of Tencent, which operates the popular WeChat messaging service, was No. 2 at $57.4 billion, up 50%. Debuting at No. 3 was Zhong Shanshan, chairman of bottled water brand Nongfu Spring, with $53.7 billion following his company’s Hong Kong stock market debut in September.

Rising share prices created an average of five new Chinese entrepreneurs worth at least $1 billion every week over the past year, according to Hurun’s founder, Rupert Hoogewerf.

“The world has never seen this much wealth created in just one year,” said Hoogewerf in a statement. “China’s entrepreneurs have done much better than expected. Despite Covid-19 they have risen to record levels.”

The richest woman on the list was Yang Huiyan of real estate developer Country Garden. She was No. 6 at $33 billion, up 29% from last year.

Rankings of China's richest change abruptly from year to year as real estate, technology and other industries rise and fall in the fast-evolving economy.

This year, the coronavirus boosted the fortunes of Alibaba's Ma and other internet entrepreneurs as the shutdown of the Chinese economy to fight the virus propelled demand for online shopping and business tools.

Eric Yuan of California-based video conference platform Zoom rose more than $10 billion to $16.2 billion. Li Yongxin of Offcn, an online work training...