Mark Zuckerberg’s wealth shrunk by £6.6 billion in the space of a year, according to the new Forbes billionaires’ list.
After Facebook endured a testing 12 months, its co-founder, chairman and CEO saw his wealth go down from £54bn in March last year to £47.4bn today.
According to the list, Mr Zuckerberg is now the eighth richest person in the world, compared to him being fifth last year.
Facebook’s issues have seen the 34-year-old hauled before Congress after it was revealed the social networking site shared users' data with political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.
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However, Mr Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, are also in the process of spending £2.8bn on philanthropic causes.
In December 2015, they also pledged to give away 99 per cent of their Facebook stake over their lifetimes.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is the world's richest manAPIn the new list, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is the richest person in the world for the second year running, at £99.7bn. Microsoft founder Bill Gates is second at £73.4bn.
US president Donald Trump’s net worth was unchanged from a year ago, at £2.7bn, though he rose to the 715th richest person from 766th last year. Forbes said this reflected “a record number of billionaires whose fortunes have decreased”.
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Luisa Kroll, assistant managing editor of wealth at Forbes, said: “The billionaire ranks prove that even the world’s richest are not immune to economic forces and the volatility of world markets. Yet, even with strong headwinds, resourceful and relentless entrepreneurs find new ways to get rich.”
There are 2,153 billionaires on the 2019 list, down from 2,208 in 2018. Of the 2,153 listed this year, 54 are from the UK.