Temu's Billionaire Founder Now China’s Richest Man

Temu’s founder Colin Huang has become China’s richest man with a net worth of $48.6 billion (€44.50 billion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The majority of Huang's success and wealth currently come from Temu. I Photo: Focal Foto Flickr

He replaced bottled-water tycoon Zhong Shanshan, the founder and chairman of beverage company Nongfu Spring, who had held the title since April 2021, Indrabati Lahiri reported for Euronews.

A serial entrepreneur, Huang has previously started several other businesses, such as the e-commerce platform Oku, the online games company Xinyoudi, and the agricultural platform Pinduoduo.

Huang was also previously an engineer at Google and has worked to expand Google’s services in China as well.

As such, Huang belongs to a new generation of Chinese billionaires, who have made their fortunes mostly in tech and are not afraid to take risks by starting multiple online businesses.

The majority of his success and wealth currently comes from Temu, a discount online shopping platform that has recently taken the world by storm. Temu, launched in 2022 by Huang’s PPD Holdings, managed to turn around the latter’s struggling performance during the tail end of the pandemic.

Temu’s business model depends mainly on individual Chinese vendors shipping directly to clients globally, without any middlemen required.

China’s relatively low manufacturing costs compared to most Western countries also make it easier to maintain Temu’s margins. The company also spends heavily on social media marketing.