Zhong Shanshan - Billionaire "turning water into gold" orphaned parents, dropped out of school early, had to work as a housemaid

Zhong Shanshan is a secretive Chinese billionaire nicknamed "the lone wolf", earlier this year overtook Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani to become Asia's richest man.

According to Bloomberg, this year, Zhong Shanshan - founder and chairman of bottled water company Nongfu Spring has "pocketed" 70.9 billion USD, bringing his total fortune to 77.8 billion USD. Thereby, he became the 11th richest person in the world. This is one of the fastest get-rich-quick cases in history, especially since Zhong is not well known outside of China.

The reason Zhong is nicknamed "the lone wolf" is because he is not involved in political affairs and his business activities are not related to other wealthy families. The 66-year-old billionaire's success comes from two fields of bottled water and vaccines. In April 2020, his vaccine maker Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise was listed on the stock exchange, then a few months later, Nongfu Spring continued to "jump up". This is one of the hottest IPO deals on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Since the listing, the company's stock price has increased by 155%. Meanwhile, Wantai's gain is more than 2,000%.

While getting rich from bottled water and vaccines, these are not Zhong's first businesses. In fact, he went through many ups and downs in life to achieve the success he is today. Zhong was born in 1954 in Hangzhou in a difficult family, his parents died early. At the age of 12, he dropped out of school to earn a living by doing various manual jobs from city to city. For the next decade, he worked as a builder and went to an average college.

After graduating from school, he worked as a business reporter for a newspaper in Zhejiang. After that, he switched to a mushroom farm but tasted failure and lost all of his savings. Undeterred, Mr. Zhong continued to try other businesses, opening a shop selling curtains, raising shrimp...

The 90s was the golden age of health care products in China. Abundant opportunities, extremely high profits, and little competition in the market.

During a visit to a restaurant to have dinner with a friend, Mr. Zhong Shanshan noticed that on every table there was a nourishing soup cooked from his father. This is a specialty in Hainan, very delicious and nutritious, so the diners love it. "If the restaurant cooks tonic soup, I'll make a tonic pill," he thought.

With his business acumen, he immediately founded a health-care pharmaceutical company. After a period of research, the nutrition pill cooked from tortoise was launched on the market and became a best-selling item in just one year. He continued to launch more health products and built a strong foothold in the hearts of consumers.

In 1996, Zhong Shanshan continued to establish Nongfu Spring bottled drinking water company - a subsidiary of Yang Sheng Tang. And his path to the billionaire's throne also started here. At that time, the bottled water market was dominated by many big names. Still, Zhong decided to venture into the space with the goal of making Nongfu a healthy alternative to the chemically pure, chemical-laden bottled waters that most competitors sell. Meanwhile, Nongfu's products are obtained from natural springs and lakes.

A marketing campaign was carried out with 3 experiments broadcast on television in 2000, comparing the effects of purified water and water of natural origin on the growth of plants and animals. Despite being well received by consumers, Nongfu was fined by China's State Administration of Industry and Commerce for "unfair competition".

And of course, that didn't stop Zhong's ambition. In 2004, he shared in an article about his marketing skills: "A company will become a zombie if it does not know how to advertise itself". In many parts of China, tap water is considered unsafe to drink directly and the demand for bottled water is increasing as people tend to pay more attention to health. According to an analysis company, the bottled water market of the country of billions of people is currently the second largest market in the world, after the US.

A 2017 report found that bottled water is the most popular beverage in many countries around the world, ahead of soft drinks, teas and juices. Another study found that every 1 second, about 1,500 (plastic) water bottles are sold in the US alone. More than 50 billion such bottles are consumed worldwide each year, despite the fact that bottled water is up to 1,000 times more expensive than tap water (where water is used directly from the tap).

In 2019, Nongfu topped the Chinese bottled water market with a market share of up to 21%. The company's revenue reached $3.5 billion, up 37% from 2017. Nongfu's products are sold almost everywhere, from roadside grocery stores to high-end hotels. Besides mineral water, Nongfu is also the main beverage producer in this country with 40% of revenue in 2019 coming from products such as tea, juice or vitamin water.

2020 seems to be a prosperous year for Zhong, despite the pandemic and natural disaster affecting the company's business. In January 2020, Zhong's fortune was estimated at only 7 billion USD. However, by August, Wantai's IPO had brought his total fortune to 20 billion USD. Not stopping there, Nongfu's successful IPO continues to increase Zhong's net worth to $38 billion, making him the third richest person in China, after Jack Ma and Pony Ma.

One analyst shared: "No one thought that Zhong, a bottled water seller in the current information technology age and post-Covid-19 economy, could become the richest person in China, surpassing Tech billionaires Jack Ma, Pony Ma and even became the richest man in Asia. He's one of the few people in China who built not one but two businesses worth over $10 billion." .

About Zhong's personal life, the media has very little information. China Daily said the billionaire now lives with his wife and three children. His wife and children are not on the list of shareholders of Nongfu, but a son of this founder is on the company's board of directors.

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