Apart from ranking wealth, Hurun Reports also rank them in other areas, such as philanthropy.

"I think part of my whole mission is to improve the transparency of wealth in society," he says.

He says the first generation had no venture capital, and during the struggle to make their fortune, they learned a lot.

"But the second generation might get 100 million yuan just to go make mistakes, to learn," he says. "Successful entrepreneurs are very good at bringing together resources, and the second generation has a huge number of resources from their parents. Those resources are incredibly valuable, and they are possibly the greatest wealth that they can pass on to their children."

Another difference is the percentage of entrepreneurs going to business school to enroll in such programs as an executive Master of Business Administration or CEO programs. The percentage is incredibly high compared with the same type of entrepreneur in the United Kingdom, he says. An example is the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, which has a very deep influence on wealth creation in China. It has changed many people's thinking and has built many friendships and a strong base of top entrepreneurs.

"A strong platform is very good for wealth creation, which is what I see that's different from other places," he says. "I think an EMBA school primarily is about building networks, but also learning from each other."

"If you look at the success of entrepreneurs from Zhejiang province, it comes from entrepreneurs coming together, having dinner, talking to each other, bouncing ideas off each other, and this is where somebody like Jack Ma (founder of China's e-commerce giant Alibaba) is very legendary," he says.

Ma "seems always to be with other entrepreneurs, coming up with ideas and talking about them. It is not just a social network. It is almost like a self-help group for entrepreneurs who have to deal with their own problems," he says.

Hoogewerf also reports on the richest people by region. People from Guangdong and Fujian provinces, for example, have more influence internationally because there are many overseas Chinese with roots in those two places. But there are few well-known people with Zhejiang province roots outside of China, even though there are many rich people from there within China.

Hoogewerf says that at the beginning, people were very curious about his reports because they never expected that someone from outside China would be interested in their stories.

"When I started, it was simple to tell the story of modern China to the outside world, and also to provide case studies of success and failure to a domestic Chinese audience to encourage entrepreneurship. Telling stories of China to the outside world and promoting entrepreneurship within China - these are two things we stick to," he says.

But now they also promote entrepreneurship not just within China but also among Chinese globally. He is also expanding his business models to other countries and regions.

For the past four years, he has developed a team of 20 people that is doing rankings of the richest individuals in India, and his reports are growing fast there.

"My philosophy of business is like this: if you can encourage entrepreneurship, it is very helpful for society. If your country allows entrepreneurs to grow, and lets these young people have dreams that they can make real - and personally make some money, but responsible money, responsible entrepreneurship - I think that is very, very healthy for the country's development," he says.

"I believe that in about 20, 30 years' time, the percentage of entrepreneurship in China will be greater and greater, especially with the shadow economy and IT technology."

chenyingqun@chinadaily.com.cn