The man behind shopping website Temu has lost his title as China’s richest person after a wipeout of almost $21 billion.
A slump in shares of Temu parent firm PDD Holdings sent Colin Huang’s fortune tumbling by $20.8 billion ($US14.1 billion).
Huang, 44, is now only the fourth-wealthiest person in China with a net worth of $51.9 billion ($US35.2 billion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
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He was only the nation’s richest for a couple of weeks.
Bottled-water billionaire Zhong Shanshan from Nongfu Spring retook the richest person spot on Monday with a fortune of $73.7 billion ($US50 billion), Bloomberg reported.
Earlier this month, Temu faced a backlash from independent merchants based in China who sell their products on the wildly popular rival to Amazon.
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Hundreds of them staged a demonstration this week at an office affiliated with Temu in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.
They were protesting what they called “unjust” fines levied by the company or withheld payment on goods already sold, among other complaints.
Fast-fashion giant Shein has also just filed another lawsuit against competitor Temu, accusing the China-founded shopping platform of stealing its designs, copying its product images and engaging in other types of fraud.
Both companies have been accused of using forced labour.
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A US congressional report last June found there was an extremely high risk that Temu’s supply chains use forced labour and that Shein and Temu had dodged import taxes and had provided minimal information about the products and the companies involved, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
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