Colin Chuang, the founder of the Chinese Internet company Pinduoduo (PDD), lost the most money among the rich this year. The volume of its assets fell by $ 27 billion (CZK 579.5 billion) this year due to Beijing’s regulatory intervention against technology companies, Bloomberg reported on Friday. It is the deepest drop in the agency’s list of billionaires.
According to Bloomberg, this is the clearest example of a change in the business environment in China. President Xi Jinping is pushing the slogan of “universal prosperity” and private companies are being pressured by regulators. Regulation has spread rapidly from antitrust and e-commerce to the tutoring, data security and e-content sectors.
Pinduoduo is more vulnerable to regulatory intervention compared to similar companies with advanced and profitable business models such as Alibaba or Tencent, said Everbright Sun analyst Ken Hung Nai. “Because of this, its stock market performance lags behind other technology companies,” he added.
Shares of Pinduoduo depreciated about 44 percent in the United States stock market this year, while shares of Chinese company Alibaba fell about 33 percent. Shares of Tencent lost about 18 percent on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange this year.
Chuang founded the company in 2015 and has a 28 percent stake in it. This technology platform connects farmers, distributors and consumers. The company is growing rapidly – with 788 million active users per year in December, it surpassed the Alibaba in this respect, which at the time had 779 million active users per year.
Pinduoduo’s market value rose to $ 178 billion, but then fell to $ 125 billion.
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