Gong is vice chairman of Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology, the world's largest supplier of video surveillance products. The Hangzhou, China-based company has more than 18,000 employees and reported revenue of 49.4 billion yuan ($7.5 billion) in 2018 from the sale of its cameras and surveillance equipment.
Gong Hongjia's net worth of $7.47B can buy ...
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The majority of Gong's fortune is derived from his stake in Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology, a Chinese supplier of video surveillance products. Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology is the world's largest supplier of video surveillance products, according to its website.
He owns 15% of the company directly and through Xinjiang Pukang Investment company that's 80% controlled by his wife, Chen Chunmei, according to the company's 2019 third quarter report. About 40% of the stake is pledged, according to the company's report, and is removed from the net worth calculation.
The couple also has stakes in closely held technology companies, including security software maker Watchdata Technologies. These investments aren't included in the net worth calculation because financial details aren't disclosed.
The value of his cash investments is based on an analysis of these proceeds as well as insider transactions, taxes and market performance.
Zhan Junhua, a Hikvision spokesperson, declined to comment on Gong's net worth.
Gong Hongjia was born in Zhejiang, a province in eastern China, in 1965. In school, he often chose literature over science and showed little interest in technology, according to the China's Tycoons report by HSBC. Gong graduated in 1986 with a computer science degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, where he met his wife, Chen Chunmei.
After graduation, he worked as an agent selling electronic products in China's southern city of Guangzhou and Hong Kong before he moved to the then-British colony in 1992. The billionaire co-founded his first company, Tecsun Radio, in 1994. It became China's largest radio producer by selling cheaper equipment to younger consumers, breaking the dominance of Japanese manufacturers, the HSBC report said. Known as "China's best angel investor," Gong and his wife have created or invested in at least 15 companies, most of which are in the technology field, according to the report.
Gong is the largest individual shareholder of publicly traded Hikvision, China's biggest maker of video surveillance products. He's also chairman of closely held Funinhand Electronic Technology, a mobile Internet company that helps users compress video for wireless handsets.
Gong and Chen live in Hong Kong and have two daughters.