Wanda boss tops Forbes China rich list again, Alibaba’s Ma No. 2

Dalian Wanda Group Chairman Wang Jianlin retained the top spot on the Forbes list of China’s 400 Richest this year, with Alibaba Group’s Jack Ma Yun in second place again, according to the list released on Thursday.

The Forbes list put Wang’s fortune at $ 33 billion this year, a $ 3 billion increase from a year earlier. Wang’s Wanda Group, once a pioneer commercial real estate developer, has also expanded its business into other areas such as entertainment. Wanda now owns the largest number of movie screens in the world and has acquired Hollywood giant Legendary Entertainment.

Ma’s net worth climbed to $ 28.2 billion this year from $ 21.8 billion in the previous year, according to the list. The increase was buoyed by a recovery of Alibaba’s stock price and a record $ 463 billion of transactions on Alibaba’s online platforms in the fiscal year through March, Forbes said.

This year’s Forbes list identified 400 billionaires and billionaire families in the Chinese mainland, increasing from 335 a year ago.

The total net worth of the 400 richest Chinese people reached $ 947 billion this year, a 14 percent increase from the previous year’s $ 830 billion.

Many of the biggest wealth gains in China were from the digital business, supported by the country’s Internet and mobile phone users, which are the world’s largest, according to Forbes.

In addition to Ma, other familiar names in the Internet industry also ranked high on the list, including Pony Ma Huateng from Tencent, William Ding Lei from NetEase and Robin Li Yanhong of Baidu Inc, who were ranked third, fifth and seventh, respectively.