[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] Mark Zuckerberg (photo), the 36-year-old founder and CEO of Facebook, has joined the $100 billion club. Globally, only three individuals have a net worth exceeding $100 billion: Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon; Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft; and now Zuckerberg.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index as of the 6th (local time), Zuckerberg's net worth stood at $100.5 billion. His net worth increased by $5.9 billion in a single day and rose by $22.1 billion (28.2%) compared to the beginning of the year.
Zuckerberg's net worth growth is due to the rise in Facebook's stock price. Approximately 97% of Zuckerberg's assets are composed of Facebook shares. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the stock prices of major U.S. IT companies have rallied, with Facebook's stock price rising nearly 30% since the start of the year. Compared to March, when stock prices plummeted due to the pandemic, it has increased by about 82% recently.
In particular, Facebook's stock price rose 6.5% on the day it announced the launch of 'Reels,' a 15-second video service similar to China's TikTok. Market expectations that users might shift to Reels amid the Trump administration's pressure to ban TikTok helped boost the stock price.
Additionally, Facebook's Q2 earnings report released at the end of last month showed revenue of $18.69 billion despite the COVID-19 impact, exceeding Wall Street's expectations, which also positively influenced the stock price. Although there have been corporate advertising boycotts due to controversies over neglecting hate speech posts, the market does not anticipate significant damage.
Born in 1984, Zuckerberg founded Facebook in 2004 while attending Harvard University. He made a huge success in the social networking service (SNS) market and became the world's youngest billionaire at age 23. Although Kylie Jenner (then 21) of the cosmetics brand 'Kylie Cosmetics' broke the record last year as the youngest billionaire, Zuckerberg's current net worth ranks third worldwide.
The world's richest person is Bezos, with a net worth of $190.2 billion. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon's online shopping sector achieved great success, driving up the stock price, and his net worth increased by $75.3 billion this year alone. The second richest is Gates, with a net worth of $120.4 billion.
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