E-commerce tycoon Colin Huang becomes China’s richest man

As the 25th richest person in the world, Huang surpasses beverage magnate Zhong Shanshan, who is just behind him with a net worth of $47.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Huang’s net worth has fallen by almost 6% since the beginning of the year, while Shanshan’s net worth has fallen by 30%.

Huang stepped down as chairman of Nasdaq-listed PDD in 2021 but remained its largest shareholder with a 26.5% stake, according to documents filed with U.S. regulators.

Born in 1980, Huang was described as a mathematical genius and received a scholarship to a school for Chinese talents. He graduated with a degree in computer science from Zhejiang University and left China in 2002.

Two years later, he began his career as a Google engineer in the United States, and in 2015 he founded PDD (formerly Pinduoduo), focusing on selling inexpensive products with many big promotions.

Even though PDD was founded two decades after competitors like Alibaba and JD.com, it quickly became a $185 billion e-commerce giant thanks to its discount strategy.

Huang resigned as PDD chairman in February 2021 but remained a major shareholder.

In addition to its low prices, the company has a fairly high market share in urban and sub-markets,” said Kenny Ng, Hong Kong-based equity strategist at Everbright Securities International, as quoted by Forbes.

“There will be competition in the market, but I think PDD has great advantages.”

PDD launched its international platform Temu in the US in 2022. It quickly gained a large number of customers by offering affordable products shipped from China.

The shopping platform quickly rose to the top of the list of most downloaded smartphone apps in U.S. stores as consumers there, concerned about inflation, sought to save money by buying cheap, unbranded products.

“In the current economic climate, people are obviously looking for great value for money and low prices,” said Neil Saunders, retail analyst at GlobalData Retail.

“So this is the time for value-added retailers like Temu to shine.” Bloomberg his words were quoted.

It has expanded into Europe, where it now has 75 million monthly active users. It also has a presence in Latin America and other regions.

By November last year, PDD’s market value had surpassed Alibaba’s to become China’s second-largest internet company.

In the first quarter of this year, PDD’s net profit tripled from a year earlier, reaching CNY28 billion (USD3.91 billion).