China: Alibaba’s Founder Slips to Third Richest Man After Disappearing

China: Alibaba’s Founder Slips to Third Richest Man After Disappearing

Chinese billionaire Jack Ma - the man behind Asia's version of Amazon - has slipped to third in the country's rich list after criticising authorities and disappearing from his own TV show.

Chief executive and founder of budget e-commerce marketplace Pinduoduo Colin Huang has overtaken Ma of Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings' Pony Ma Huateng to become the country's second richest person.

He now has a current net worth of US$63.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The news comes as mystery surrounds the whereabouts of Jack Ma, who vanished from his own TV talent show. There has been no sign of him since late October.

The 56-year-old is said to have made around £35billion from creating Alibaba, the Asian version of Amazon, and was a poster boy for the communist regime.

But China's rulers seemed to turn against him after he criticised regulators and state-owned banks at a financial technology conference in October.

On Wednesday, shares of Nasdaq-listed Pinduoduo rose 7.77 per cent in New York, lifting its market capitalisation to nearly US$220 billion.

It marked the second day in a row that the five-year-old start-up passed the US $200 billion mark in value.

Huang's wealth in China is now behind only Zhong Shanshan, the chairman of bottled