Facebook's CEO and Chairman Mark Zuckerberg has become the sixth wealthiest person in the world, passing oil tycoons Charles and David Koch. The social network's co-founder launched "Thefacebook" as a teenager at Harvard University, and now has a net worth of $47.5 billion after his big fortune rose $6 billion due to trading of the public company's stocks on January 28, Thursday.
Zuckerberg is 31 years old. Meanwhile, Charles Koch is 80 years old and his brother is David is 75 years old.
On January 27, Wednesday the social media giant announced that the company's Q4 profits rose 52 percent. Its stock shares then rocketed 12 percent in after-hours trading.
Bill Gates, Amancio Ortega and Warren Buffet are still the three wealthiest people in the world, according to The Independent. Microsoft co-founder Gates has an estimate net worth of $70.8 billion. Rounding the list of the Top 5 richest people in the world are Amazon's Jeff Bezos and businessman Carlos Slim.
The last quarter of 2015 had different effects on the coffers of the world' richest people. That was due to the worldwide economic environment.
Zuckerberg benefited the most. However, Bezos struggled to hold his No. 3 spot on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as his company's stock prices fell 7.6 percent on Friday, according to Vanity Fair.
Vanity Fair points out that if stocks continue in the same direction Zuckerberg could jump over Slim and Bezos. That would make him the fourth wealthiest person on the planet.
It is unlikely that the spots of the Top 3 richest people in the world will change in the near future. However, Zuckerberg is trailing Slim by just $1.1 billion, and $8.3 billion behind Bezos.
Zacks explains there are three reasons Facebook stocks have spiked recently. One is that Facebook's Q4 revenues and earnings were higher than experts had projected.
Another reason is that mobile ad revenues have rocketed 69 percent in year-over-year figures as people use the Facebook app more often on their smartphones and tablets.
Thirdly, Facebook has a big potential for growth. In Q4 the company placed 29 percent more ads and raised its pricing by 21 percent.