Alibaba's Jack Ma is now richer (on paper) than Amazon's Jeff Bezos

 By 
Seth Fiegerman
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

In the battle for supremacy between the world's ecommerce billionaires, Jack Ma is now winning.

Ma, the cofounder and chairman of Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba, is now wealthier (at least on paper) than Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, according to data collected Friday from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Ma is now said to be worth $36.4 billion thanks to his stake in Alibaba as well as his stake in Ant Financial, the company's financial affiliate, which is now said to be valued at $50 billion and considering an IPO next year. Bezos, by comparison, has a net worth of $32.3 billion.

Based on Friday's numbers, Ma and Bezos are the 13th and 16th richest people in the world, respectively. The switch in their placements is somewhat symbolic; Alibaba is often compared to Amazon, since they both focus on ecommerce, though Alibaba doesn't actually handle logistics and serves more as a platform for brands to connect with customers.

Ma, who has a 9% stake in Alibaba, saw his net worth soar to $26 billion in September shortly after Alibaba's IPO, the largest in history.

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