(Yicai) Oct. 29 -- Zhang Yiming, the founder of TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance, has become the first self-made billionaire born in the 1980s or later to rank as the wealthiest person in the country, according to the 2024 Hurun China Rich List.

Zhang, 41, saw his wealth climb by CNY105 billion (USD14.7 billion) to CNY350 billion (USD49 billion) in the past year, per the rankings released yesterday.

"Zhang Yiming is the 18th new Number One we have had in China in just 26 years,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun Report chairman and chief researcher. “The US, by comparison, has only four Number Ones: Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.”

“This gives an indication of some of the dynamism in the Chinese economy,” Hoogewerf said.

Zhang pushed aside Zhong Shanshan, the 70-year-old founder of bottled water giant Nongfu Spring, following a three-year stint at the top, after Zhong’s wealth tumbled to CNY340 billion from CNY450 billion.

The number of entrepreneurs with a fortune of CNY100 billion or more fell to 26 from 30, while those with over CNY5 billion dropped to 1,094 from 1,241. The total wealth of those on the list plunged by CNY2.4 trillion (USD336.1 billion) to CNY21 trillion (USD2.94 trillion), while their average age fell to 61 from 63.

Ma Huateng, 51, ended third after the chief executive of Tencent Holdings saw his fortune increase by CNY35 billion (USD4.9 billion) to CNY315 billion (USD44.1 billion), mainly thanks to the internet giant's strong performance in gaming, advertising, and cloud services. Alibaba Group Holding's founder Jack Ma and his family ranked 10th, with assets of CNY165 billion.

This year's list includes 54 newcomers, the lowest over the past 20 years. Among them, the highest-ranked was Xu Bangfu, chairman of Taiwan-based Fortune Electric, and his family with CNY18.5 billion. Following were Mao Wenchao, who set up social media platform Xiaohongshu, with CNY18 billion, and Zhou Shengfu, founder of Hong Kong-based freight and logistics firm Lalatech Holdings, with CNY17 billion.

Some 201 people fell off the list this year, with 16 percent being from the industrial goods sector, 11 percent from the pharmaceutical industry, and 8 percent each from the energy, software services, and food and beverages sectors.

“The old guard, represented by real estate developers, have given way to a new guard of tech, new energy, consumer electronics, especially smart phones, e-commerce, especially cross-border e-commerce, consumer products and healthcare,” Hoogewerf noted.

Billionaires in the industrial goods sector still made up most of those on the list, even after dropping to 12.7 percent from 13.3 percent this year. The raito of individuals from the consumer goods sector increased the most to 11 percent from 9.8 percent, while the healthcare sector's contribution fell to 9.1 percent from 9.7 percent.

The number of entrepreneurs aged 40 and under on the list climbed by 26 to 127 year-on-year, but only 32 were self-made, seven fewer than last year. Cai Haoyu, the 37-year-old CEO of Shanghai-based game developer HoYoverse, joined this group with a fortune of CNY73 billion.

The cut-off date for calculating the wealth of people considered for the list was Aug. 30.

Editor: Martin Kadiev