Tencent’s Pony Ma reclaims title of China’s richest person

By Diana Li and Filipe Pacheco

Tencent Holdings Ltd. co-founder Pony Ma returned to the top of the wealth rankings in China, making him the latest tech billionaire to achieve the status.

Weak economic data from the world’s second-biggest economy sent some Hong Kong-listed shares lower on Monday, allowing Ma to surpass bottled water tycoon Zhong Shanshan with a fortune of $43.9 billion as of 2:23 pm local time, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Zhong drops to third place, and Zhang Yiming, the founder of privately-held TikTok owner ByteDance Ltd., is second.

Ma’s wealth swelled lately as Tencent gains surpassed the performance of any similar-sized rival, riding a resurgence of gaming in China, the world’s biggest mobile arena. The success of blockbuster titles from its 'DnF Mobile' to 'Black Myth: Wukong' — a cultural phenom that it backed — coupled with pledges of support from Beijing, helped propel Tencent to levels not seen since Covid-era internet peaks.

That’s after China spent the better part of two years reining in the country’s most powerful tech firms, including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Didi Global Inc., along with their ultra-rich founders. That clampdown eroded investor and entrepreneurial confidence and chilled a private sphere that was crucial in propelling the Chinese economic miracle of past decades.

Ma, who once embodied China’s ruling class of exorbitantly wealthy tech moguls, was also caught up in the purge. But unlike his more outspoken colleagues, Tencent’s founder has always been something of a recluse, shunning the spotlight and preferring to orchestrate activity from behind the scenes. 

His wealth is still down about 40 per cent from its peak in January 2021, according to Bloomberg’s wealth index. He is the third person to hold the title of China’s richest since July, after record-breaking selloffs erased billions from the fortunes of the nation’s richest and revealed deepening investor concern over the health of Asia’s biggest economy. Colin Huang, the founder of PDD Holdings Inc., held the crown for just 18 days last month before surprising his own investors with an gloomy outlook for his e-commerce firm.

Ma established Tencent in 1998 with money he made from an earlier venture at a cost of 500,000 yuan ($70,450), the equivalent of 62 years of the average Chinese wage at the time. The native of China’s southern Guangdong province studied computer science at Shenzhen University and was a software developer before co-founding Tencent with four others.

Tencent, the world’s biggest games publisher, rocketed in the years before China’s crackdowns began, at its peak standing as the world’s fifth-most valuable company. Tencent also amassed stakes in Tesla Inc., Reddit Inc., Snap Inc., Spotify Technology SA, and an array of global entertainment brands.

At that time, Ma was among the Chinese tycoons who accumulated vast fortunes on the back of surging economic growth, becoming the nation’s richest person in June 2020. The bulk of Ma’s wealth is derived from his stake in Shenzhen-based Tencent, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. 

In the aftermath of China’s moves to curb the influence of tech companies and root out corruption tied to the “disorderly” expansion of capital, Tencent downsized by divesting or selling stakes in e-commerce and gaming assets, and the government ordered the company to overhaul its financial business.

Beijing has has sent clear signals since late 2022 that it’s relenting, driven in part by the need to enlist private firms to revive the economy. Last year, it ended years of scrutiny into Ant Group Co. and the fintech sector after imposing more than $1 billion of fines.