China "Rich List'': Rupert Hoogewerf's spume

In the past five years Englishman Rupert Hoogewerf is getting more sagacious.

In 1999 when he started to become famous, with his first Chinese mainland's rich list on hand he complained of "the imbalance of social information'', which made him very hard to get information.

And yet, today the young English man, who spoke earnestly years before, has made a "imbalance of information'' himself. As the accumulative process of Chinese rich people becomes transparent as he desires and when he can smoothly collect rich info the rich list has suddenly turned opaque.

Hu doesn't release the 2004 China "rich list'' as usual. Network media Sina publishes it while Sohu doesn't. Only one of the media in each big city released the "rich list''.

The clever and capable Hoogewerf is making use of the more media sensationalism for the "rich list''.

During a year, Hoogewerf has released several lists including "China 100 rich list'', "List of top 50 estate firms with powerful influence''. "List of top 50 capital firms'' and "IT rich list''.

At the same time, the expansion of various rich lists in China has become a trend. On the day when Rupert Hoogewerf released his list, Sina and one of the media in the south of China were also taking votes on their respective "rich list''. In the past 10 months, more old and new lists are waiting to be published.

To achieve more sensationalism more and more lists have been made. With more lists coming out, their sensationalism will be weakened. What will be the outcome for the competition?

The two famous global lists -- one from the US Fortune and another from Rupert Hoogewerf's former boss Forbes -- have been released for more than 10 years. They are the most authoritative.

Let's see Rupert Hoogewerf who has left his old boss for nearly two years. His new partner "Euromoney'' has not enjoyed popularity in China, or to say it exactly it is because of Rupert Hoogewerf that people have got to know the unknown magazine.

It is dangerous to put an authoritative list on a person. In yesterday's survey sponsored by Sina with the participation of 4,769 people, nearly half of the participants did not agree with the list and one fourth of them did not express any opinion.

In five years, the sensationalism Rupert Hoogewerf has made might be turning to be foams -- flamboyance and emptiness -- which will be suddenly destroyed in expansion.

By People's Daily Online