His Wealth Surged by $25 Billion. Then Jack Ma’s Rival Quit

  • PDD shares have more than quadrupled in less than two years
  • Huang gives away $14 billion stake after stepping down as CEO
Colin HuangPhotographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
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Colin Huang’s ascent is one for the history books: In just six months, his fortune swelled by $25 billion -- one of the biggest gains among the world’s richest people.

His Pinduoduo Inc., a Groupon-like shopping app he founded in 2015, has become China’s third-largest e-commerce platform, with a market value of more than $100 billion. In the first quarter, as the coronavirus pandemic caused most of the nation’s economy to grind to a halt, PDD’s active users surged 68%Bloomberg Terminal and revenue jumped 44%, the company said in May.