Jack Ma, Founder and Executive Chairman of Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba Group addresses the Economic Club of New York at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in the Manhattan borough of New York City, June 9, 2015. (Photo provided to China News Service)
The world of technology billionaires is looking increasingly Chinese, with 20 from the mainland landing on the Forbes list of the 100 Richest People in Tech.
Only the United States, with 51, had more tech billionaires on the list, which was released on Wednesday.
Forbes concluded that "the next technological revolution may come from outside of Silicon Valley".
Jack Ma, 51, founder of e-commerce kingdom Alibaba Group, topped all Asian tech billionaires, and was seventh overall with an estimated wealth of $23.2 billion, despite Alibaba's share price tumbling by more than 30 percent from its peak of $119.15 in November.
Part of Ma's wealth comes from the growing financial services company Ant Financial, which operates popular electronic payment platform Alipay and online money-market fund Yu'ebao. Total sales revenue of Ant Financial was as much as 10.2 billion yuan ($1.64 billion) last year, with net profit of 2.6 billion yuan. It is expected that the average compound annual growth of Ant Financial will reach 64 percent between this year and 2017. Analysts estimate that the financial company's value will be over 50 billion yuan once it's listed.
"I think Ant Financial should go public. But since the business is still in its infancy, I have not yet planned when and where it should be listed," Ma said at a conference earlier this year.
Pony Ma, 44, founder of Shenzhen-based Internet company Tencent Holdings, best known for its instant messenger service WeChat, came in second in China with a net worth of $17.9 billion. Robin Li, 47, CEO of search engine Baidu, was bumped down to fourth in China. His company's shares have dropped nearly 20 percent in the past 12 months as it tries to adjust to the increasingly mobile-driven landscape.
Lei Jun, 46, who aspires to become "Steve Jobs in China", passed Li of Baidu to become the third-wealthiest Chinese tech tycoon with an estimated wealth of $13.4 billion. Aiming to provide affordable smartphones to consumers, his company Xiaomi shipped the largest number of smartphones in the second quarter and took the lion's share of 15.9 percent in the Chinese market, according to market consultancy Canalys.
But Lei sees a bigger picture than that.
"Xiaomi is the combination of smartphones, e-commerce and smart home. This is the business model that combined hardware, software and Internet when we set up this company," wrote Lei on Sina Weibo.
