The Beijing authorities have stepped up measures against national tech companies.
The takeover of large Chinese private tech groups by the Communist regime had a direct effect on the portfolios of their billionaire bosses. Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, the e-commerce giant, and his nine peers, less known in the West, from the club of the ten richest Chinese, saw their fortunes plummet by a cumulative amount of $ 80 billion in 2021. Or a quarter of their collective treasure, according to the Bloomberg agency.
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Colin Huang, founder of e-commerce site Pinduoduo, suffered the biggest loss, nearly $ 43 billion, as his company’s stock fell 70%.
Colossal stock market losses
For months, the Beijing authorities have stepped up measures against these national tech nuggets, which have become symbols of individual success and autonomy that does not fit well with the new slogan of “common prosperityOf the Red Emperor. DiDi, the “Chinese Uber”, for example, was forced to leave the New York Stock Exchange. Since then, the stock portfolio of his boss, Cheng Wei, has quadrupled to $ 1.7 billion.
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Jack Ma, for his part, who has kept a low profile since the suspension of the IPO of its subsidiary Ant Group in 2020, has seen $ 13 billion go up in smoke this year.
In addition to these stock market losses, the “tycoons” have shed $ 5 billion, according to Bloomberg’s calculation, in the form of donations to charities, strongly encouraged by President Xi Jinping.