COVID-19 made the wealthy wealthier - Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf

While the jury is still out on the economic effects of the coronavirus crisis, the majority of the wealthy ended off better since the COVID-19 hit the world, says Hurun rich list founder Rupert Hoogewerf in the Business Standard. "The two biggest ‘winners’ from the Hurun Top 100 of Covid-19 were online retailers Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Colin Huang Zheng of Chinese low-end ‘social shopping’ giant Pinduoduo," says Hoogewerf.

The Business Standard:

Amazon Inc boss Jeff Bezos, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani and Dr Cyrus Poonawalla of Pune-based Serum Institute of India saw their wealth increasing during the coronavirus pandemic, says research done by a Chinese group. 

Hurun Research's 'Wealth Impact 4mths after Covid-19 Outbreak' tracks the wealth changes of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs in the four months ending May 31. It is a follow-up on the 'Wealth Impact 2mths after Covid-19 Outbreak' looking into wealth changes in the two months ending 31 March 2020 and the Hurun Global Rich List 2020, which had a wealth cut-off of 31 January 2020. 

As many as 60 per cent of the entrepreneurs on Hurun Global Rich List Top 100 had their wealth rise or stay the same in the four months since the outbreak. As many as 40 per cent entrepreneurs saw their wealth reducing. “Whilst the first two months of the outbreak saw a massive wealth wipeout of the Hurun Global Top 100, the second two months saw a V-shaped recovery for two-thirds of the Hurun Global Top 100, reminding us that it is dangerous to bet against the world’s best wealth creators,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun Report chairman and chief researcher. 

"The two biggest ‘winners’ from the Hurun Top 100 of Covid-19 were online retailers Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Colin Huang Zheng of Chinese low-end ‘social shopping’ giant Pinduoduo, who added Rs 1.51 trillion (20 billion US$) and Rs 1.35 trillion (18 billion US$) to their fortunes, pretty much all the gains coming in the past two months,” said Hoogewerf. 

Another big winner was Eric Yuan Zheng, 50, of popular video conferencing app Zoom, who saw his wealth triple from Rs 34,000 crore in January to Rs 98,200 crore today, propelling him up from 555th in the world four months ago to knocking on the door of the world’s Top 100 today."

More at the Business Standard.

Rupert Hoogewerf is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your (online) meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more experts on the fallout of the coronavirus crisis? Do check out this list.

At the China Speakers Bureau, we start to organize online seminars. Are you interested in our plans? Do get in touch.