Ding is the CEO and largest shareholder of NetEase, an internet service provider. The Beijing-based company is best known for bringing games like Overwatch and Westward Journey to local players. Its email system has over 1 billion registered users and the company reported revenue of 67 billion yuan ($10.2 billion) in 2018.
William Ding's net worth of $17.7B can buy ...
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The majority of Ding's fortune is derived from his 44% stake in publicly traded NetEase, an online games operator. Its email system has over 1 billion registered users as of June 30, 2019, according to a company presentation.
He owns the shares through British Virgin Islands-based Shining Globe International, according to NetEase's 2018 annual report. His stake consists of 2 million American depositary shares and 1.4 billion ordinary shares. Each ADS is worth 25 ordinary shares.
The value of his cash investments is based on an analysis of dividends, taxes, market performance and charitable giving.
Ding declined to comment on his net worth.
William Ding was born in 1971 in eastern China's Zhejiang province, the son of an engineer who worked at a state research institute. Ding developed an affinity for electronic gadgets while young and managed to assemble a six-tube radio when he was in middle school. He attended the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in the city of Chengdu, where he studied computer science and got a bachelor's degree in communication technology.
Upon graduation, he took a government job as a telecommunications engineer in his hometown of Ningbo and quit two years later. He headed south to Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong province, and started to work for U.S. software solutions provider Sybase, which was acquired by SAP AG in 2010.
Ding founded NetEase in 1997 with two friends and about $60,000 in Guangzhou, offering China's first free e-mail service. NetEase expanded its business to an online bulletin board, news services and internet-based games.
The company sold shares in an initial public offering in 2000. Ding shifted his business focus to sectors outside the Internet in 2011, including a business raising pigs that he started in an effort to allay fears about food safety in China.