Richest Billionaires SF Expresss Wang Wei on Chinas List

Richest Billionaires SF Express's Wang Wei on China's List Who says a man with a van can’t dream big? A quarter-century ago, Wang Wei was just a 20-something guy making deliveries out of his car in the back alleys of Hong Kong. This month, Wang became China’s third-richest man, after his company, SF Express (the subsidiary of SF Holdings) â€" what most call “the Fed-Ex of China” â€" went public. Forbes estimates that Wang is worth $23 billion. “When SF started delivering packages in the 1990s, it was still an illegal business called ‘black delivery,’” Wang told the official People’s Daily in 2011, in the only interview he has ever given according to the South China Morning Post. It’s unclear how much of a disadvantage Wang ACTUALLY had: He has professed poverty, saying that, “My parents were university professors in the mainland but their academic records were not recognized when we moved to Hong Kong when I was little. So we started from scratch,” he said. Video Player is loading.Play VideoPlayMuteCurrent Time  0:00/Duration  0:00Loaded: 0%Stream Type  LIVESeek to live, currently playing liveLIVERemaining Time  -0:00  SharePlayback Rate1xChaptersChaptersDescriptionsdescriptions off, selectedCaptionscaptions settings, opens captions settings dialogcaptions off, selectedAudio TrackFullscreenThis is a modal window. This video is either unavailable or not supported in this browser Error Code: MEDIA_ERR_SRC_NOT_SUPPORTED Technical details : No compatible source was found for this media. Session ID: 2019-12-30:e2e395b845b3f4551833b36c Player Element ID: jumpstart_video_2 OK Close Modal DialogBeginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.TextColorWhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyOpaqueSemi-TransparentBackgroundColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyOpaqueSemi-TransparentTransparentWindowColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyTransparentSemi-TransparentOpaqueFont Size50%75%100%125%150%175%200%300%400%Text Edge StyleNoneRaisedDepressedUniformDropshadowFont FamilyProportional Sans-SerifMonospace Sans-SerifProportional SerifMonospace SerifCasualScriptSmall CapsReset restore all settings to the default valuesDoneClose Modal DialogEnd of dialog window.PlayMuteCurrent Time  0:00/Duration  0:00Loaded: 0%Stream Type  LIVESeek to live, currently playing liveLIVERemaining Time  -0:00  Playback Rate1xFullscreenClose Modal DialogThis is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button.Close Modal DialogThis is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button. However, it’s known that his father was an interpreter for the Chinese air force, and, by one account, spotted Wang $20,000 to help create his business. In any event, Wang saw an opportunity to shuttle packages between the still-British-ruled Hong Kong and Shenzhen, which was being set up as one of China’s “special economic zones.” His big break, according to the Hong Kong Economic Times, came during the SARS outbreak in 2003. The commercial airline industry had crashed, but Wang managed to procure a license to run charter flights to keep deliveries flowing. By then, the delivery business had started to become a crowded space â€" and remains so to this day â€" but this move apparently established SF Express as the most reliable delivery service in China. Today, SF’s network covers 200 countries (with more than 15,000 vehicles), CNBC reported, largely thanks to the success of Alibaba, the “Amazon of China.” “Not only the past decade, but the next few years will also be a golden age for Chinese couriers’ development,” John Song, a Shanghai-based director of the logistics and transportation practice in China at consultancy Deloitte, told Bloomberg. “There is huge potential in the development of these Chinese couriers.”