Alibaba founder Jack Ma's wealth ballooned from $7.1bn to $19.5bn last year

Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba, is China’s richest person with a fortune of nearly $20bn, as billionaires increase despite a slowdown in the country’s economy, Forbes magazine said on Tuesday.

The number of Chinese billionaires surged to 242 this year from 168 last year, Forbes said in its annual China Rich List, which ranks the wealthy.

Mr Ma’s personal wealth ballooned to $19.5bn from $7.1bn last year after his company’s record-breaking IPO on the New York Stock Exchange last month, according to the magazine. The entrepreneur also topped a similar list released last month by China-based luxury magazine publisher Hurun, which put his wealth at a much higher estimate of $25bn. Alibaba was founded 15 years ago with $60,000 pooled together from Mr Ma’s friends, and is now valued at more than $240bn after listing in the US.

Reports also suggested that  **Jack Ma is keen to bring Alipay and Apple Pay together**. Alibaba affiliate Alipay is China’s largest payments service, while Apple debuted its own version of a mobile wallet, letting iPhone 6 users make payments at retailers with their smartphones. Alibaba, which handles more e-commerce transactions than Amazon and eBay combined, does not have much of a presence among American retail customers and Ma said his focus for now was on serving his Chinese clientele. “I want to come here looking for partners,” he said, adding that China will eventually become the world’s largest movie market.“I hope we can do something together,” he said when asked if Alipay and Apple Pay might tie up.

With inputs from AFP