Hurun

Hurun

Rupert Hoogewerf, born in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in 1970, is a British certified public accountant and the founder of the famous Hurun 100.

He graduated from Durham University in 1993. He studied Chinese in Renmin University of China and Japanese in Japan. He is proficient in German, French, Luxemburg and Portuguese. Seven years of Andersen London and Shanghai experience in the accounting industry.

In 1999, China's first fortune list "hundred rich list" was launched.

Character experience

Hurun, a foreigner who almost broke into China's wealth by himself at that time, has been using his way to give China's rich people a different "aura" - the richest man in charity, the richest man in real estate and so on, no matter whether they like it or not. As a matter of fact, in the humble atmosphere of Confucius and Mencius, which China is not used to, this kind of publicity "rich list" has become the favorite of public opinion because of its novelty since its appearance. In the past 11 years, it has been prosperous for a long time, and Hu Run, the founder of the list, has become famous. Today, eleven years later, the war of fortune ranking is becoming more and more fierce, and his name has even become a brand that even children know. He is happily developing the branch industry under the brand. In other words, this foreigner who is used to evaluating Chinese people has finally fed himself with this.

The biggest advantage of Hurun is that it is brave, patient and diligent. In the face of relying on a large number of objective data, it regularly publishes the highly controversial top 100 list every year. Hurun has never taken the trouble to explain the list to the media over and over again, "the rich list can't be 100% accurate We can only ensure 60% - 70% accuracy. I frankly admit that there are sometimes some errors due to differences in calculation methods. " Now every time Hurun is on a business trip, he tries his best to make time to meet with the local rich. Recently, when he was interviewed by our newspaper in Beijing, Hurun also let reporters "see" his ability of meeting guests.

He and the billionaires are playing the "tall, short, fat and thin" queuing game

In the first impression of the vast majority of ordinary people, the word "Hurun" may represent the following meaning: "the founder of the rich list seems to have the background of Forbes, a young" foreigner "with an ordinary Chinese name, and he is close to the rich people and always controversial."

For those who are familiar with Hurun and its industry, Hurun is green in appearance and full of ideas. He is a successful salesman and reporter. After the grass-roots entrepreneurship stories of China's rich people were published in his once famous "Forbes", they have become the object of world attention and hot money pursuit. He is like a "caller" in the hot business of hotels and other places, and he is competing with the billionaires They are playing the "tall, short, fat and thin" queuing game. He is more like a "Karate" master. He is a half-way monk. In China, he turns from "scolding the rich" to "learning from the rich". He creatively and firmly grasped the "money tree" of the ranking list, and tried his best to shake out a way to make money from living to being rich.

Everywhere I went, I was dressed in a blue plaid shirt, with a gentleman's smile on my face, a handsome face, a cheerful look, rich body language, and a fluent Chinese with English words. This is the first impression of Hurun. Unlike ordinary foreigners, Hurun's appearance is younger, often concealing his real age. Today, at 45, he is still childish, which is almost the same as when he first arrived in China more than ten years ago.

"My rankings don't get their approval in advance." With China's reform and opening up, a group of people who once carried farm tools have turned into private entrepreneurs who are relying on the leading stick to get rich legally. These people are the "first generation of rich people at the top of China's wealth" that Hurun often talks about. The fate of Hurun has also changed because of this special change in China.

"My rankings don't get their approval in advance." This is the working principle of Hurun. He told reporters that no matter whether the rich are willing or not, how to "coerce" them, or even tell them in a lawyer's letter, he always "insists" on putting his own label on the rich people - the people on the Hurun 100 rich list. It seems that in his eyes, the rich are his "children", and he is also happy to act as a "diligent" kindergarten teacher. Fortunately, "I've never been personally threatened."

Hurun's father worked as an accountant all his life, and his mother was a housewife. The most glorious history of the family can be traced back to the British Industrial Revolution, when it set foot in the real estate industry, and then it became dull. His relationship with China can be traced back to 1988. Due to the opportunity to study in Japan, Hurun set foot in Asia for the first time. His experience in Japan made him fall in love with Chinese characters and become interested in China. So when he returned to Durham University, he chose Chinese department.

In 1990, Hurun went to Renmin University of China for one year. After graduation, Hurun engaged in the same accounting industry as his father. With the advantage of Chinese, in 1997, Hurun came to Andersen in Shanghai from London. Hurun's initial idea was to return to the UK as a middle class after struggling in China for a few years.

In Hurun's memory, 1990 was the peak of the global IT industry. Many of his friends and colleagues chose to start a business. The myth of becoming rich was constantly shaking in front of him. From the victory smile on the entrepreneur's face, Hurun felt that it was the life he wanted. But for Hurun, what to do and what industry to do is a big problem.

Since his first visit to China in 1990, Hurun has been experiencing the rapid changes in China. Every time I go back to the UK, when my friend asks me what China looks like, "GDP continuously exceeds 10%..." Hurun's answer is always difficult to make friends "quench their thirst", but also has too much uncertainty. So he tried to find a constant standard in the changing economy.

Hurun thought of the biggest beneficiaries of China's economic growth. From the beginning, Hurun made it clear that the stories of these people represent the stories of China and interpret the changes of China. For their stories, including more than a billion Chinese people, the whole world is very curious but unaware of them. But at this time, Hurun didn't realize that this idea might change his later life. At that time, he only knew that this thing was very interesting.

Launch China's first fortune list

In 1999, Hurun began to use his spare time and holidays to consult more than 100 newspapers, magazines and the announcement statements of listed companies. With his interest and professional expertise, after several months of ups and downs, Hurun finally ranked the first fortune list in China's history that is in line with international standards.

In order to let people know such a list and know the people who made it, Hurun understands that it is necessary to find influential channels of transmission. On September 1, Hurun returned to the UK and sent faxes to the financial times, the economist, business week, Forbes and other professional financial media, hoping to publish his list. At that time, the western media had never published a similar ranking list. Finally, Forbes and Hurun had a "crab meal" together for the first time. But no one can predict the change of the relationship between Hurun and Forbes in a few years.

Although Hurun knew from the beginning that the cooperation with Forbes was only a "one-time deal", it has always been a freelance writer outside the system, and the ranking was only introduced to Europe and the United States, which has little influence in China. But for Hurun, it is crucial that the results of a survey representing China's wealth ranking be recognized by Forbes, which has global influence.

With the release of the list, China's rich list, which is named "Hurun" for the first time, has obviously aroused the interest of Forbes readers. Forbes, which has been planning to open up the Chinese market, took the initiative to find Hurun in the second year and invited him to complete this year's "China's 50 (net worth discussion) rich people list". When the effect of publicity abroad, in the planning of friends, Hurun also quickly began to look for domestic media support.

From not being able to contact a rich person to meeting more than one third of the people on the list

In 2000, "China's first generation of rich" was suddenly exposed in the public's field of vision due to the successive reports of domestic media. "Where does the rich people's money come from" has become the most heated question from all walks of life in China. "In the process, the turning point of Chinese people's understanding of the rich has also helped me," Hurun said "At first, the Chinese thought that the rich were all rich by relationships, but the story of these private entrepreneurs who started from scratch changed the Chinese view of the rich." When Hurun thought that the rich order was established, he himself undoubtedly became the biggest winner.

In 2001, Hurun resigned from Andersen's job and reprinted "China chief investigator of Forbes magazine" on its business card, which was tacitly approved by Forbes. He expanded the number of people on the rich list to 100.

At the same time, Hurun's investigation of the rich in China has also received increasing respect. In 1999, Hurun was unable to contact any of the rich people on the list. Later, Hurun has been able to meet more than one-third of the people on the list and contact all the rich people on the list.

From then on, in the eyes of Chinese people, Hurun Cheng was the only spokesperson of Forbes in China. Even today, many people are still thinking about the "background" of Hurun's Forbes, even after Forbes released its own list in China.

A fax to the then British Prime Minister

Chinese PinYin : Hu Run