Colin Zheng Huang Net Worth: Pinduoduo CEO Now Richer Than Jack Ma

Colin Zheng Huang is now richer than Jack Ma with his $47.2 billion. The chairman and CEO of Pinduoduo is one of the wealthiest people in China today.

Huang made a name in the tech industry as Pinduoduo became popular among Chinese consumers. Under the social commerce platform, sellers can offer anything from groceries, food items, vegetables, electronics and even fashion items, and buyers can get them at a discounted price if they share it with others or opt to buy a “group deal.” Online consumers are blurring the line between marketplace and social media platforms, so Huang decided to merge these two features to entice the public.

The structure is unlike other e-commerce platforms established in China such as Alibaba and JD.com. The response to Pinduoduo has been impressive, and in 2018, Huang started trading his company at Nasdaq. When Pinduoduo became public, it pushed its CEO’s net worth to $9.89 billion at the time. Now he is even richer than Jack Ma, the former CEO of Alibaba and the man many consider as the father of e-commerce platforms in the country.

According to South China Morning Post, the Chinese billionaire had a rough childhood but showed potential at an early age. He was schooled in Zhejiang University and interned at Microsoft’s Beijing office. After performing well, he received offers from Oracle, Microsoft and IBM but he eventually chose to work for Google in 2004. The travel to and from China to the U.S. took a toll on him and he quit for good in 2006.

In China, he began investing in tech startups. He first ventured into e-commerce site Ouku and then moved to Leqi. Huang’s third company is gaming studio Xunmeng. His experience in different e-commerce platforms and his savings prepared him for his next big venture, which was Pinduoduo.

Huang earned his Master’s degree in Computer Science at University of Wisconsin-Madison, per Forbes. The 40-year-old had to fight off allegations that his e-commerce app offers imitation and counterfeit products. The same issues and scandals have tormented other online platforms such as Alibaba before and Pinduoduo’s CEO promised cooperation in the investigation. The allegations of counterfeit items being sold took its toll as price shares went down to $19 from $27.5 at the time.

According to Bloomberg, Pinduoduo has more than 600 million users and generated $4.2 billion revenue in 2019. At present, e-commerce businesses have seen gains during the lockdown as consumers prefer ordering necessities online and having them delivered to their homes.