THE coronavirus pandemic has boosted the fortunes of Internet entrepreneurs as the lockdowns imposed to fight the virus propelled demand for online shopping and business tools, according to a survey released Tuesday.

Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba, held onto his status as China’s richest tycoon this year thanks to surging demand for online shopping and other services during the pandemic, according to Hurun Research Institute, which follows the country’s wealthy. Ma’s fortune rose 45 percent over 2019 to US$58.8 billion.

Pony Ma, founder of Tencent, which operates the popular WeChat messaging service, was No. 2 at US$57.4 billion, up 50 percent. Debuting at No. 3 was Zhong Shanshan, chairman of bottled water brand Nongfu Spring, with US$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 US$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 US$33 billion, up 29 percent 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.

Li Yongxin of Offcn, an online work training platform, more than doubled to US$20.6 billion. Chen Xiangdong of tutoring platform Genshuixue rose eightfold to US$11.8 billion.

Ma, 56, retired as Alibaba chairman last year and also is a shareholder in Ant Group, a payments service spun off from Alibaba. It is preparing for a public share offering after being valued at US$150 billion in a 2017 private financing round, which will add to Ma’s fortune.

Entrepreneurs in electric cars, an industry the country is promoting, also saw their fortunes swell.

Zeng Yuqun of battery producer CATL tripled to US$17.6 billion. He Xiaopeng of electric car brand Xpeng rose 80 percent to US$6.6 billion following a stock market debut in New York. Li Bin of NIO rose 300 percent to US$3.5 billion.

Lei Jun of smartphone brand Xiaomi saw his fortune more than double to US$25 billion as its share price surged.

(SD-Agencies)