Robin Li (李彥宏)

Robin Li has built the most popular search site, Baidu, in China. In part helped by rapid growth in Internet advertising and the number of Internet users in China -- about 457 million in January, Baidu's U.S.-traded shares more than doubled in the past year, which pushes Li's wealth up to $9.4 billion and making him the richest man in the mainland for the first time.

Before cofounding the internet company in 2000, Li worked as a staff engineer in Silicon Valley for Infoseek, a pioneer in the Internet search engine industry. In 2000 he founded Baidu with Eric Xu (徐勇). He has been the CEO of Baidu since January 2004, which was listed on NASDAQ in August 2005.Wealth estimate includes shares held by wife, Melissa Ma.