HURUN REPORT, WORLD’S LARGEST RICH LIST PROVIDER, RELEASES HURUN GLOBAL U40 SELF-MADE BILLIONAIRES 2023

(6 April 2023, Shanghai, China, and Mumbai, India) Hurun Report today released the Hurun Global Forty and Under Self-Made Billionaires 2023, a ranking of the world’s self-made US dollar billionaires forty years and under. Wealth calculations are a snapshot of 16 January 2023.  This is a sub-list of the 2023 Hurun Global Rich List, released on 23 March.

Hurun Research found 59 self-made billionaires in the world aged 40 or under, down 28 on last year. They came from 10 countries, down 1 on last year. Their total wealth was US$269bn, down 41%. 4 individuals, down 8, are worth US$10bn or more. The average age was 37yrs.

50 saw their wealth go down, of which 23 dropped out. A further 20 from last year turned 41 years old, so no longer made the age cut-off. 21 saw their wealth go up, of which 14 were new faces. 11 saw their wealth not change.

Rupert Hoogewerf, Chairman and Chief Researcher of Hurun Report, said, “The number of self-made billionaires aged 40 or under has dropped back to pre-Covid levels, suggesting that the Covid-fueled boom of industries like crypto and and EVs, has dropped back to more normal levels. I hope this list of the Hurun Global U40 Self-Made Billionaires can give an indication of where the wealth creating opportunities lie for the next generation of entrepreneurs.”

“Sam Altman, 37, of OpenAI does not make the list, because OpenAI CEO took no equity in the company when it became for-profit.”

“This is the first year of KOLs making it to billionaire status. Individuals who are able to influence millions of consumers, the likes of World Cup winner Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo both make billionaire status for the first time on the back of club signup fees and brand endorsements. Others include the singer Rihanna, who used her influence to create makeup brand Fenty Beauty and LeBron James, the second NBA player after Michael Jordon to reach billionaire status.”

“Entertainment, Online Gaming, Media and Food Delivery were the main sources of wealth for the Hurun Global U40. Crypto had a bad year.”

“Mark Zuckerberg has said that he intends to give his wealth away and has so far given 4% away. For most, it is too early to think about giving it away.”

“It took the world’s most successful Under40s less than six years to make their first billion on average. That is mainly because most of them are serial entrepreneurs, who started off at average age of 24 with their first business and then started their current business aged 27. Elon Musk, the world’s best-known serial entrepreneur, sold his first business aged 28 before investing into SpaceX aged 31 and Tesla aged 33.”

“The world’s self-made Under40s billionaires are much more versatile when it comes to where they want to live than their elders. They are twice as likely to emigrate compared with the average billionaire. Today, one in three, up from one in four last year, of the Hurun Global U40 were born and brought up in countries different to where they live today. The most attractive start-up ecosystems for young immigrant billionaires were the USA, UK and UAE, whilst the main country of origin was Russia.”

“8 out of 10 of the Hurun Global U40s are selling Software & Services rather than physical products, more than the average billionaire in the world today. As many as 3 in 4 of the U40s sell direct to consumers, which is again much much higher than the average billionaire.”

“Interestingly, 7 out of 10 of the Hurun Global U40 had a helping hand from their parents, in that they had a private education or some means before they started their business.  All made their own money.”

“For most entrepreneurs, aged 40 is when their business is just beginning to kick off, whilst for the individuals from the Hurun Global U40, they have managed to make a billion dollars already. The questions are ‘How big can they get by the time they are the age of Elon Musk, Bill Gates or Warren Buffett?’ and ‘What will they do with all this wealth? Give it to charity, or to their children?”

Hurun promotes entrepreneurship and value creation through its lists and research. This list, the  Hurun Global U40 is designed to encourage more young people to learn about entrepreneurship through the stories of the world’s most successful young entrepreneurs under the age of 40. If they have a billion or more before the age of 40, then how big can they get to by the time they get to the age of Elon Musk, Bill Gates or Warren Buffett?

5 are based in the US, 2 in each of the UK and Singapore, and 1 in each of the Australia and UAE. They come from seven companies: Meta, Telegram, Stripe, Douyin, Airbnb, Shein and Playrix. Cut-off to the Top 10 was US$6.6bn, down 45% on last year.

There were four new faces.  Three of last year’s Top 10, Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia of Airbnb, and Eduardo Saverin of Facebook are now 41 years, so are no longer eligible to be on the Under40s list, whilst Sam Bankman-Fried dropped off completely after the collapse of FTX.

Mark Zuckerberg, 39, saw his wealth down US$8bn, but was still the richest self-made individual in the world under the age of 40 for the 8th year. Zuckerberg was down as much as US$35bn in the course of the year, but clawed back most of that as Meta’s stock rose these last couple of months.

Despite being down US$17bn, newly based in Singapore Zhang Yiming, 40, of ByteDance, has retained second place in the Hurun Global U40 Self-Made Billionaires 2023 list with US$37bn. Douyin is the most valuable start-up in the world, with a valuation of US$200bn according to the 2022 Hurun Global Unicorn Index. TikTok is currently fighting for its survival in the US, after Congress’ questioning of how its data is being stored. Douyin is reported to have a staggering US$80bn in revenues last year, significantly all of it from its China-based business.

With US$12bn, Sydney-based online design platform Canva, husband and wife Cliff Obrecht & Melanie Perkins are at third place. Canva has over 100 million users in over 190 countries.

Dubai-based Pavel Durov, 39, of instant messaging app Telegram broke into the Top 5 of the Hurun Global U40 Self-Made Billionaires 2023 for the first time, making him the richest software and services entrepreneur in the world under the age of 40. Scandals involving the major social networks at the beginning of 2021 have given an unexpected boost to Russia-born Durov’s Telegram messenger service, which has now just under 900 million users around the world, with 150 million in India.

With US$9.6bn, Dustin Moskovitz, 39, a co-founder of Facebook with then-roommate and Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg, shares the fifth spot. Most of Moskovitz’ wealth comes from his 2% stake in Meta. Moskovitz and his wife started Good Ventures, a philanthropic foundation, with the aim to donate most of their wealth.

With US$7.7bn each, Russia-born brothers Dmitry and Igor Bukhman of gaming company Playrix, shares 6th place. Currently Playrix is among the world’s top game publishers by generated revenues. The company was born in Vologda, Russia, 18 years ago and moved its headquarters to Dublin.

Media-shy Chris Xu Yangtian, 39, of innovative fast-fashion retailer Shein broke into the Top 10 for the first time, as Shein continued to grow its sales of fast-fashion products. Singapore-based Xu spotted the opportunity to design and produce fast-fashion in Guangzhou, where the supply chain of apparels is pretty much complete. Shein then mails its products around the world, and has built up substantial market shares in the US and Europe.

By country, the USA topped the U40s list with 23 self-made billionaires, followed by China (18). India and UK for third and fourth place respectively. The Hurun Global U40 Self-Made Billionaires 2023 came from 10 countries, and one from each of France, Australia, Sweden and Saudi Arabia.

By city, the Bay Area in the US led with San Francisco top and Palo Alto in the Top 5. Beijing and Shanghai were at second place. Shanghai was the fastest-growing city for young self-made billionaires in the world.

The USA was the preferred country of residence, making up 39% of the total and adding 3 new faces to this year's list. Media & Entertainment (7) and Transportation & Logistics (5) were the preferred wealth-creating sectors.

China remained in second place, albeit down 7 billionaires compared with last year. Top was MXBC founder Zhang Hongfu. Top three industries were Media & Entertainment, followed by Food & Beverages. There were 9 new faces, led by Shanghai-based Cai Haoyu, 36, who made the list with US$3.1bn.

India was third, down 1 to take the total to 5. Top was Zerodha founder Nikhil Kamath with US$2.9bn.

Singapore rose to 6th place, with Zhang Yiming and Chris Xu Yangtian, both originally from China, now based there.

Dubai rose to 5th place, with the likes of Pavel Durov of Telegram and Nikolay Storonsky of Revolut based there.

21 individuals saw their wealth go up, of which 14 were new entrants.

The biggest gainers of the year were Zhang Hongfu of MXBC, whose wealth shot up US$3.2bn, followed by Pavel Durov of Telegram, and Playrix co-founders Dmitry Bukhman and Igor Bukhman . 7 individuals saw their wealth grow over the year. Playrix, the fourth-biggest mobile game developer in the world, successfully launched its games in countries like India and China, which have become two of its largest markets.

China-based Cai Haoyu, Liu Wei and Luo Yuhao of Mihoyo followed by Yang Bing of Chinese social e-commerce app Dewu.

Zhang Yiming was down US$17bn. The next four biggest drops came from USA, led by Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Nathan Blecharczyk of Airbnb and John Collison and Patrick Collison of Stripe. 27 individuals saw their wealth drop over the year. Payments processor Stripe raised US$6.5bn at a valuation of US$50bn, down nearly 50% from two years ago. Shares of ad-reliant tech companies are plummeting across the board, Snap share price plummeted more than 75% after Apple’s privacy changes.

43 dropped out of the list, of which 23 dropped off because their wealth no longer made the cut, and 20 are too old for the Under40s. The total number of dropped accounts half of last years list.

Bahamas-based Sam Bankman-Fried, 31, of cryptoexchange FTX was the biggest casualty, dropping from US$21bn last year. The cumulative wealth of the Under40 selfmade billionaires down by US$187bn or 41% to US$269bn.

The main source of wealth for the world’s top young entrepreneurs was in Entertainment and Online Gaming, followed by Media and On Demand Delivery.

The average age was 37 years with 9 born in the nineties. Austin Russel and Johnny Boufarhat are the youngest self-made billionaires in the world, aged 28.

15 individuals or 25% of the Hurun Global U40 Self-Made Billionaires 2023 were born and brought up in countries different to where they live today. These immigrant billionaires chose the USA (5), UK and UAE (3 each) to live in today, and came originally from Russia and China mostly, followed by Ireland.

A: less than 6 years