- Beijing overtook New York City as the “Billionaire Capital of the World”
- Beijing is home to 100 of the world’s billionaires while New York only has 95
- The increase in Chinese billionaires is attributed to new economic policies introduced by China
New York City may be known as the “concrete jungle where dreams are made of” due to its towering high-rise buildings, its lavish fashion district, and the infamous hustle of Wall Street.
However, the Big Apple can no longer claim one title — “billionaire capital of the world.”
Surprisingly, the honor now belongs halfway across the world to a new contender, Beijing; the capital of the Communist People’s Republic of China.
Wealth tracking firm Hurun, as earlier reported by USA Today, pointed out that the Chinese capital is home to the most number of billionaires.
Reports say that the city is now home to 100 billionaires; adding 32 newcomers from last year. In comparison, New York City “only” has 95 billionaires calling the metropolis home.
Included among the city’s richest residents are Wang Jianlin – the richest man in the country and 21st worldwide the real estate tycoon, Alibaba founder Jack Ma, beverage tycoon Zong Qinghou, and the owners of phone maker Xiaomi, the social media firm Tencent, and search engine Baidu.
The rise in the number of super wealthy individuals in Beijing can be attributed to the country’s policies which now allows new initial public offerings (IPOs) to enter the Chinese market after years of blocking the opening of new IPOs.
“What we showed today is that at the super-wealth creation level, the Chinese are now leading,” Rupert Hoogewerf, founder of Hurun, explained to The Independent.
Hurun based their calculations using the stock prices as of last January; noting that they took into consideration the economic status of the country’s market in the latter half of 2015.
It was discovered that despite suffering from a slowdown and a decrease in the value of its stocks, China still managed to help create new billionaires. In addition, the number of Chinese billionaires are expected to rise in the coming years.
Meanwhile, other cities that serve as home to the world’s billionaires are Moscow with 66, Hong Kong with 64, and Shanghai with 50.
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