A list published Tuesday showed that "Jack Ma", founder of Alibaba and Ant Group, has lost the title of the richest man in China, after the conditions of other wealthy people boomed as his empire is under intense scrutiny by Chinese regulators.
Jack Ma and his family occupied the top spot in the Hurun Global Rich List of China's richest people in 2020 and 2019, but the latest list showed that he is now slipping to fourth place behind Zhong Shanshan, owner of Nongfu Spring bottled water, and Bonnie Ma with Tencent Holdings. tencent Holdings) and Colin Huang, owner of the fledgling e-commerce company Pinduoduo.
The Huron report said that Jack Ma's descent from the top three came "after Chinese regulators curbed Ant Group and Ali Baba over antitrust issues."
Jack Ma's troubles were caused recently by a speech he gave on October 24 criticizing China's regulatory system, which led to the suspension of his $ 37 billion initial public offering of Ant Group, just days before the fintech giant's public listing. .
Since then, regulators have tightened antitrust scrutiny on the country's tech sector, while Alibaba is receiving a lot of that pressure, as the market regulator opened a formal antitrust investigation of Alibaba in December.
After that, Ma - who is not known to be keen to keep out of the limelight - disappeared from public view for about 3 months, prompting much speculation about his whereabouts.
He reappeared last January in a 50-second video.
Chung, the richest man in China, has now risen to the top for the first time with a fortune of 550 billion yen ($ 85 billion), largely due to the share price performance of Nongfu Spring and vaccine maker Beijing Wentai Biological Pharmaceutical Enterprises (Wantai) which he also controls.