Asia, which is home to many of the fastest in the world economies and economic powerhouses, has seen a surge in super-wealthy people. It has more millionaires than North America. Others have staged remarkable turnarounds, beginning from zero to establish billionaire empires, while others have enjoyed the economic wave and extended their family fortune.
Entrepreneurship is difficult and hazardous, with approximately 22.5 percent of small enterprises failing within a year. However, there are currently 582 million entrepreneurs creating worldwide, with 1.9 million Asian Americans owning these enterprises, and new businesses are being launched every day. Despite their increasing numbers, many Asians face problems such as language barriers and financial uncertainties. Despite all of these challenges, they continue to contribute to the corporate sector in many areas and often dominate and shape. The top 10 inspiring Asian entrepreneurs who founded prominent and well-known enterprises globally range from IT organizations to beauty goods to social networking sites.
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Ten Asia’s Richest Entrepreneurs
Satoshi Nakamoto
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency that was founded in 2008 by an unknown team using the Japanese pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin grew in popularity once users on the web recognized its worth, thanks to the principles of blockchain, a decentralized system. Bitcoin is currently valued at about US$54 billion.
Li Ka-Shing
Li Ka-Shing is Asia’s wealthiest self-made business tycoon. Li, 84, is regarded as one of Asia’s most prominent corporate personalities, earning him the moniker “superman” for his astute commercial operations. In 1928, the Chinese business giant and his family moved to Hong Kong from mainland China. With personnel in 52 countries, Li’s business is highly diverse, encompassing logistics and telecommunications to biotech.
Zong Qinghou
Zong Qinghou is China’s richest person and member of the Chinese legislature. He is the chief executive of the Hangzhou Wahaha Group, which is China’s leading beverage company. With a $22K loan, Zong started the beverages company in 1987 as an elementary school shop that sells vitamin beverages and candies in Hangzhou, China’s eastern capital. The company has around 150 affiliates, including 60 manufacturing bases across China and a kids’ clothing line. He holds more than 80% of the shares of the company.
Tatparanandam Ananda Krishnan
Tatparanandam Ananda Krishnan is Malaysia’s second wealthiest man, with a corporate empire spanning telecommunications, gaming, real estate, oil, and pay-TV. He acquired his fortune as an oil trader and became a founding director of Malaysia’s state-owned oil company, Petronas. Currently, he owns control of various Malaysian companies through his holding company, Usaha Tegas. Ananda took Malaysia’s largest telecoms giant Maxi’s private in 2007, just before the global economic crisis hit, with his significant share, and then put on the market in 2009 with a $3.3 billion IPO. He launched offshore petroleum firm Bumi Armada in July 2011, raising $890 million just as market instability forced many Asian IPOs to be canceled. Ananda’s most recent market action was the relisting in October of pay-TV company Astro All Asia Networks, which raised $1.5 billion after he took it private in 2010.
Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi
Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi is the third wealthiest man in Thailand and the proprietor of Thailand’s leading brewer, Thai Bev. Charoen began his career selling local inexpensive beer and whiskey in the 1970s, and within the ten years, he moved on to acquire and operate sugar mills, banks, and insurance firms. In 1995, he launched a joint partnership with Danish brewer Carlsberg to manufacture Chang Beer and formed Beer Thai, which later became part of Singapore-listed Thai Bev. The billionaire has a significant real estate portfolio, with TCC Land owning shopping centers and hotels from New York to Singapore. In what would be Southeast Asia’s most significant massive expansion, he bought Singapore’s Fraser & Neave, a dairy, soft drinks, publishing, and real estate company, for around $11 billion.
Henry Sy, Sr.
Henry Sy Sr. is the wealthiest individual in the Philippines and the most senior entrepreneur on our list. Sy emigrated from China to the Philippines, where he began his career by starting Shoemart, a local shoe store in Manila, in 1958. The store later grew into SM Investments, his multibillion-dollar conglomerate. The company has since grown to be among the most outstanding retail conglomerates in the country, with holdings in shopping malls, real estate, banking, and hotels. With a market capitalization of $17.2 billion, the investment firm is the Philippines’ most expensive publicly-traded company. According to reports, Sy owns 67 percent of the company.
Masayoshi Son
Softbank, Japan’s third-largest telecommunications company, was founded and led by Masayoshi Son, Japan’s third-richest man. When he was 19 years old, he invented the talking electronic translation machine, which he marketed to Sharp, a Japanese electronics company. Son started Softbank as a computer and software reseller in 1981, which grew to be a telecom behemoth and invested in various businesses, including Aozora Bank, Yahoo, and Nasdaq Japan. Softbank today has a market capitalization of far more than $53 billion, and Son is said to possess more than 20% of the company. He also bought a 70% stake in Sprint Nextel, the third-largest cellphone carrier in the US, for $20.1 billion.
Liang Wengen
Sany Group is among China’s leading construction equipment suppliers, is led by Liang Wengen. Sany was formed in 1989 by Liang and three colleagues as a modest welding materials manufacturer in the very same province. The company has expanded to include five business parks in China, five manufacturing bases in the United States, India, Germany, Indonesia, and Brazil. He has also started 21 sales offices across the world. Sany’s cement pumps were employed to construct China’s Three Gorges Dam, and its purchase of German firm Putzmeister in 2012 put it the world’s leading concrete pump producer. Sany is owned by Liang, who owns 58 percent of the company. He was awarded “economic person of the year” by Chinese broadcast network CCTV in 2012, alongside ten other business titans.
Wan-Tsai Tsai
Wan-Tsai Tsai is the third most prosperous businessman in Taiwan but the only Taiwanese tycoon to appear on the world’s wealthiest entrepreneurs list. As Cathay Insurance, Tsai, a previous lawmaker, formed the Fubon Group as one of Taiwan’s most prominent multinationals in 1961. Construction, telecom, and media are now subsidiaries of the company. Tsai’s vast conglomerate group’s holdings limited has a market capitalization of $12.7 billion. Fubon Financial obtained approval to buy an 80% share in the Chinese bank Firstsino Bank, becoming the first Taiwanese bank to have been given permission to invest in a Chinese bank.
Sunil Mittal
The last on our list is Sunil Mittal. Bharti Enterprises was founded by Sunil Bharti Mittal, the chairperson of Bharti Airtel, India’s leading cellphone service provider. Mittal is also the eighth wealthiest man in India. Mittal started the company as a bicycle components maker when he was 18 years old, with his dad as little as $500. The 55-year-old businessman found Bharti Telecom, which was the first in India to deploy push-button phones in the 1980s and cordless phones a couple of years later. With activities in 20 countries, today’s business has holdings in retail, financial services, and manufacturing.
