Beijing’s regulatory assault on China’s technology industry has lopped $87bn off the net worth of the sector’s wealthiest tycoons since the start of July, hitting the fortunes of magnates such as Tencent’s Pony Ma and Pinduoduo’s Colin Huang.
The combined net worth of the two dozen Chinese billionaires in tech and biotechnology whose holdings are tracked by Bloomberg has dropped by 16 per cent since ride-hailing platform Didi Chuxing went public in the US at the end of June, according to Financial Times calculations.
The $4.4bn listing, which the company launched despite private warnings from Chinese authorities to delay it due to data security concerns, has been followed by a regulatory firestorm. Beijing has sought to tighten its grip on an industry that has helped transform the world’s second-biggest economy, prompting a plunge in the share prices of China’s largest tech groups.