Mark Zuckerberg joins Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos in the ‘Centibillionaire Club’

The Facebook chief executive and co-founder joins the “Centibillionaire Club”, which already includes Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.

Mark Zuckerberg has seen his personal wealth hit $100bn (£76bn), 16 years after he co-founded Facebook from his university dorm room.

He joins Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Microsoft’s Bill Gates in the “Centibillionaire Club”.

The latest boost to Zuckerberg’s wealth came after Facebook launched a new short-form video feature on Wednesday.

Instagram Reels is a rival to Chinese app TikTok and it prompted Facebook shares to jump more than 6% on Thursday, having risen by almost 30% this year.

Mr Zuckerberg owns 13% of Facebook and the social media platform owns Instagram.

The 36-year-old’s personal wealth has gained about $22bn (£16.8bn) this year, while Mr Bezos’s has grown by more than $75bn (£57bn), according to Bloomberg.

The news comes after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning US transactions with ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns the video-sharing app TikTok.

The order, which will come into effect in 45 days, comes after his administration warned it was stepping up efforts to purge “untrusted” Chinese apps.

Tencent, which owns the WeChat app, is being targeted with similar measures.

Meanwhile, Facebook told employees on Thursday that they could work from home until July next year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

They will also be given $1,000 (£764) for home office needs.

Twitter and Google have made similar promises to employees in recent weeks.

 

Skynews

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