Jack Ma's $21.8 billion puts him top of China's wealth list

Jack Ma is China's richest person. The 49-year-old founder and chairman of Alibaba Group Holding has a net worth of $21.8 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

His assets include a 7.3 percent economic interest in China's largest e-commerce business, which is preparing for what could be the largest initial public offering in US history, and almost half of the parent of Alipay, a separate online-payment service that hadn't previously been included in his net worth calculation.

Ma is $5.5 billion richer than Ma Huateng, the founder of Tencent Holdings, China's largest Internet company by market value. Robin Li, the founder of search engine Baidu, ranks third in the world's second-largest economy.