Wealth dips in China, list of billionaires loses 300 members

The annual ranking of Chinese billionaires has lost nearly 300 of its members this year, as Ma Huateng of one of the founders and CEO of the technology giant, “Tencent” and Zhang Yimin, a Chinese Internet entrepreneur, dropped from the list. Zhang Founded ByteDance in 2012, and developed the news app Toutiao and the video sharing platform TikTok.

Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce Alibaba, have seen their fortunes drop by as much as 32% amid the country’s economic slowdown. The latest China Hurun Rich List, which ranks the richest people in China with a net worth of at least 5 billion yuan (691 million US dollars), saw 293 billionaires drop from the list compared to last year, while 133 new entrants joined. The net loss of 160 billionaires represents a drop of 11% and is the largest drop in wealth in 24 years, according to the South China Morning newspaper.