Amazon boss at the top of world’s richest

THE founder of Amazon has become the world’s richest man after his wealth grew by £ 25.5 billion ( R425.4bn) this year.

Helped by a bumper Christmas shopping season, Jeff Bezos made £808 every second in 2017, taking his fortune to £ 74.2bn and past Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in the rich list.

The 500 wealthiest people on the planet raked in an extra £750bn this year as the global economy roared into life. Their combined fortunes rose by 23% to more than £4 trillion, according to research by Bloomberg.

Bezos, 53, set up Amazon in his garage in 1994 and built it from an online bookseller into a shopping titan which is devouring conventional retail outlets.

Amazon pioneered online shopping and its website is one of the biggest players in everything from TV streaming to groceries.

It sold £57.5bn of goods in the first nine months of the year and accounts for nearly one in every two dollars Amer- icans spend online.

Amazon keeps detailed customer figures tightly under wraps but it said more than 1 400 electronic products were ordered every second by Christmas shoppers using their cellphones.

Gates, 62, had held the top spot for four years. He is now worth £68bn and is the world’s second-richest man. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, 33, is fifth with £54.1bn.

The top 500 includes 14 British billionaires, led by 26-yearold Hugh Grosvenor, who became Duke of Westminster and inherited £9.6bn when his father died last year. He is 99th on the list. – Daily Mail

PICTURE: MIKE KANE/BLOOMBERG Amazon head Jeff Bezos is now the world’s richest man. This comes after Amazon made record sales over the Christmas season.