Who is the most influential rich person in China? He is 32-year-old William Ding Lei, head of NetEase Inc, according to the new influence list released by Rupert Hoogewerf, the much-hyped compiler of the Chinamoney 100 list.

Ding Lei(left) pose with Zhang Chaoyang for a photo at a party. [China Daily/file]

In co-operation with www.Baidu.com, the country's biggest Chinese search engine, Ding won the top-slot by being the target of 91,722 searches on the website last year.

"We take the 100 richest entrepreneurs as research objects. The number of times they are searched is taken as a standard because searching is a kind of initiative based upon caring about something or someone, I think it represents a person's influence," Rupert Hoogewerf said.

"The aim is to let more people understand those people who run private enterprises. I hope their spirit can affect more young people, leading them to create their own businesses," he added.

Cause for concern

Zhang Chaoyang, president of Sohu Inc, who came second on the influential persons list, expressed his willingness to be a star.

"In a more and more commercialized society, success equals celebrity and wealth. Why not be a star?" said Zhang, who is well-known for his fashionable style.

Xu Ming, president of Shide Group, the 15th richest entreprenuer in the 2003 Chinamoney 100 list, cited the ancient saying, "Fame would bring danger" though he said he doesn't believe it, arguing that the entreprenuer should have the courage to be new, to be innovative.

The falls from last year's 100 richest list are spectacular. The highest profile case was the arrest of the flamboyant Zhou Zhengyi, former chairman of Nongkai Group. He was charged last summer with manipulating share prices and falsifying paid-up capital. Though it was not his fame that carried him to prison, people compare his story with an old saying: "It is bad for a pig to be fat, the same goes for a person who is well-known."

"In most cases people like to keep a low profile, which serves as a kind of self-protection. It may be related to personal experience," said Zhang Jun, director of the China Centre for Economic Studies at Fudan University.

The challenge these entrepreneurs face lies in taking more social responsibility in a country where the wealth gap between cities and the countryside is widening, according to Hoogewerf.

China's GDP per capita is about US$1,000 and the Gini co-efficient, a standard statistical measure of income inequality, has crossed the 0.40 threshold, a level generally viewed as a cause for concern.

As these businesses grow, they are expected to play a more active part in society, contributing to local hospitals, schools and infrastructure.

"Running a large company makes it impossible to avoid politics," said Guo Guangchang, chairman of the Shanghai-based Fosun Group, to Chinamoney.

Not just money

Apart from the richest Ding Lei, the position of influence seems to be only loosely related to wealth according to the analysis of Hoogewerf.

Some entrepreneurs with huge fortunes such as Xu Rongmao, Lu Guanqiu and Chen Lihua, all among the top-10 for wealth, fall outside top 10 on the influence list. The fifth richest individual, Ye Lipei from Shanghai, known as a real estate tycoon, is listed 60 in the influence list.

It can be concluded that the influence of people in the real estate business does not match the volume of capital they possess.

The most influential business is IT. In the top 10 of the influence list, three, including the champion Ding Lei, are in the IT business.

"The influence comes from many factors quite apart from the money they have," Hoogewerf said. "Entrepreneurs' personality, creativity, political position, business-type and location all matter. IT is a business that starts from scratch and can be copied by many young people."

Number one this year is IT "geek" Ding Lei, chairman and chief technology officer of NetEase Inc, whose stock price on Nasdaq has shot up more than 50-fold in the past two years, making him the mainland's richest person with assets of US$900 million in 2003.

Ding founded NetEase in 1996. It is appropriate to compare him with the founders of Google, which was set up in 1998.

Based on new technology and bringing success at a young age, this is a model for many young people.

But compared with successful overseas Chinese entrepreneurs, the influence of entrepreneurs in the mainland is still limited.

Take Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing as an example. In 2003, he was searched for over 21 million times on the Baidu website, almost competing with the most influential movie star, Andy Lau, who was the target of 26 million searches.

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