Riding the crest of the world's biggest IPO, Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba, has become the richest man in China with a fortune of $24.4 billion, according to an annual list of the country's wealthiest people today.
Ma, 50, took top spot in the annual Hurun wealth bible from last year's number one, Wang Jianlin, founder of property developer Dalian Wanda Group, despite Wang's wealth growing 7 per cent.
Wang ranked second on the list this year, with a fortune of 145 billion yuan.This is the first time that Ma with assets worth 150 billion yuan, has topped the list, largely thanks to Alibaba's initial public offering in New York.
It is estimated that Ma could rank 25th on the Hurun Global Rich list, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.Ma, who had to convince friends to give him $60,000 to start Alibaba 15 years ago after being rejected by US venture capitalists.