Meet the richest man in China

After launching as a "business-to-business marketplace for global trade" 15 years ago, the Alibaba Group opened on the New York stock exchange late last week with the largest IPO in United States' history.

The move - which saw shares initially priced at $68 and then traded at $92.70 - has made the founder of the group a very, very wealthy man.

“We want to be bigger than Walmart,” said Jack Ma to CNBC on Friday, as the company shares began trading. And, as it turns out, they were for a while. At its opening price, the e-commerce giant was worth about $228 billion - or, more than Facebook, to put it perspective.  

At one point, the stock briefly jumped to $99 a share - making it bigger than Walmart - before ending trading on $93.89, leaving it below Chevron but above P&G, worth $231.4 billion.

This IPO has made Ma China's richest man, owning around $21.9 billion in assets, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The surge in shares meant Ma's stake in the company is worth around $16 billion - a number which actually get even higher when you take into consideration around $800 million he will have pocketed himself by selling shares, reported Forbes.

Ma's new net worth places him wealthier than Robin Li, the founder of search engine Baidu. It also places him among the world's richest people in tech - a group which include people such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Ellison.

His new-found fame also brought with it a fair share of rumours, the biggest being that Ma was now considering leaving China for Hong Kong - something which would be a bit of a downer for China's growing emergence as a global player.

However - even though many of China's rich are planning to leave the mainland - according to an article in The Guardian, Ma is staying put.

"Hangzhou is where I was born, went to school and started my business," he said of his hometown. "I didn't know whether to laugh or cry" at the reports, he said.

7 quotes from China's richest man 

1. "When I am myself, I am happy, and have a good result." [source]

2. "If you don’t give up, you still have a chance. And, when you are small, you have to be very focused and rely on your brain, not your strength." [source]

3. "Never give up. Today is hard, tomorrow will be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine." [source]

4. "I believe in two principles: Your attitude is more important than your capabilities. Similarly, your decision is more important than your capabilities!" [source]

5. "30% of all people will never believe you. Do not allow your colleagues and employees to work for you. Instead, let them work for a common goal." [source]

6. "If you want to grow, find a good opportunity. Today, if you want to be a great company, think about what social problem you could solve." [source]

7. "It doesn’t matter if I failed. At least I passed the concept on to others. Even if I don’t succeed, someone will succeed." [source]

Image: World Economic Forum at en.wikipedia