Photo/New Fortune

On May 16th, the 2023 New Fortune 500 Rich List was released at a press conference held in Macau, China.

Zhong Shanshan, founder of Nongfu Spring, tops the list as the richest man for the third consecutive year. Bytedance's Zhang Yiming and Pingduoduo's Huang Zheng are among the top three, followed closely by Zeng Yuqun of CATL, Wang Wei of SF Holdings, Qin Yinglin/Qian Ying of Muyuan Foods, and the He Xiangjian family of Midea Group.

Among internet tycoons, Zhang Yiming, as the richest man in the ranking, leads far ahead in terms of wealth scale, even richer than Tencent's Ma Huateng, Alibaba's Ma Yun and NetEase's Ding Lei. 

In 2023, the total wealth of people on the list was 13.45 trillion yuan. The average wealth per capita fell from 33.1 billion yuan in the previous year to 26.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 19%; the entry threshold fell to 7.76 billion yuan, A year-on-year decrease of 18%.

It seems that China’s top ten richest people are gradually stabilizing.

According to New Fortune magazine, between 2003-2013, the total wealth of the top ten richest people increased tenfold, and there were basically 4-7 newcomers every year. From 2012-2023, the wealth of the top ten increased fourfold with 2-4 newcomers. In 2023, no new faces appeared.

However, the number of billionaires has also declined significantly. Both enterprises and markets are under pressure from multiple fronts.