The world has got a new ‘centibillionaire’ in the form of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, whose net worth passed $100 billion(N37,900,000,000,000) for the first time on Thursday. With this, he has now become the world’s third centibillionaire, joining Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Microsoft’s Bill Gates in this exclusive ultra-rich club.
He crossed the milestone after shares of Facebook surged 6.5% on Thursday, a day after the company launched its TikTok rival, Reels on Instagram. Well, the timing of the launch couldn’t have been better! Incidentally, the release of the short video feature came just as US President Donald Trump threatened to ban the Chinese-owned app TikTok.
“Reels invites you to create fun videos to share with your friends or anyone on Instagram. Record and edit 15-second multi-clip videos with audio, effects, and new creative tools,” the company said in a blog post about the new Instagram feature.
Zuckerberg’s fortune is largely derived from his 13% stake in Facebook, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which tracks the world’s wealthiest people. Zuckerberg’s personal wealth has gained about $22bn this year, while Bezos has grown by more than $75bn.
Notably, this growth enjoyed by tech companies is led by the effects of coronavirus pandemic, which has driven people to spend more time online.
The five largest American tech companies – Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Facebook, and Microsoft currently have market valuations equivalent to about 30 percent of US gross domestic product, nearly double what they were at the end of 2018, as per Bloomberg.
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