It seems that this 100 billionaire from Shandong is about to take root in the United States.
On March 9, the Wall Street Journal reported Chinese that Yuan Zheng, founder of Zoom, an online video conferencing software developer, transferred 40% of his company's equity, worth $6 billion, or about 40 billion yuan.
The report pointed out that the transaction was recorded as two gifts, each with nearly 9 million shares, and the gift was two trusts jointly served by Yuan Zheng and his wife as trustees, but the recipient of the gift was not disclosed. A Zoom spokesperson said the two gifts were made in accordance with the terms of the trust between Yuan Zheng and his wife, in line with estate planning practices.
Affected by this news and the broader market, Zoom plunged another 7.85% to $310.93, with a total market capitalization of only $90.5 billion. Based on a October 2020 high of $588.84, Zoom shares have plunged 47 percent in less than half a year. At the same time, the Forbes Global Real-time Rich List shows that Yuan Zheng's family plummeted again by $1.1 billion in a single day, and only about 90 billion yuan remained.
In fact, in the recently released 2021 Hurun Rich List, Yuan Zheng's net worth is as high as 19 billion US dollars, about 124 billion yuan, tied with BYD's Wang Chuanfu and the Great Wall's Wei Jianjun and Han Xuejuan, ranking 104th on the list. This means that in just a few days, Yuan Zheng lost more than 30 billion yuan.
Public information shows that Yuan Zheng, born in 1970, is a native of Tai'an, Shandong Province, whose parents are geological engineers and whose family conditions are average. Because he could not speak English, Yuan Zheng was rejected 9 times in two consecutive years when applying for a U.S. visa, and after going to the United States, he also ran into a wall everywhere, until he founded Zoom in 2011.
Affected by the epidemic, Zoom's stock price soared by nearly 400% in 2020, with a total market value of more than 100 billion US dollars, and Yuan Zheng was also well known to the public. According to the latest financial report, in the fourth quarter of 2021, Zoom achieved revenue of $880 million, an increase of 369% year-on-year; achieved a net profit of $260 million, also with a growth rate of more than 300%.
The city found that in the 2021 Hurun Rich List, Zhang Shiping (deceased) from Weiqiao Venture, with a wealth of 13.5 billion US dollars, about 88 billion yuan, became the top entrepreneur in Shandong, that is, the richest man in Shandong. But it still has 36 billion yuan less wealth than Yuan Zheng. That is to say, if Yuan Zheng chooses to return to China, he will become the new richest man in Shandong.
However, Yuan Zheng once said bluntly in a conversation, "There are many Chinese who have returned to China." People like me can't go back, or don't have enough guts and courage to stay. I didn't catch up with anything in China, and I'm sorry that I pursued my dreams, but the end result was hard to control. The other thing is that I have three children..."
(The author 丨 shijie Feng Chenchen, editor |.) Lang Ming)