In our modern world, the lives and stories of tycoons and magnates have resonated with almost all of us. Whether it be through humble origins, their original ideas that made them millions, or the controversies that line their path to the top.
The world’s top entrepreneurs are a talking point for the media, especially in the online space where thousands of articles are written daily covering these men.
Interested in businesses’ largest personalities, MoneyTransfers.com analysed the latest data from Internet analytics tool Buzzsumo to establish which entrepreneurs in the world have been the most publicised online in the past year (September 2020 – August 2021). Notably, there are no women featured on the list.
Here are the top 10 most talked-about entrepreneurs in the world:
10. Sundar Pichai
- Number of Online Articles: 10,838
The CEO of Alphabet and its subsidiary Google, Indian-born Pichai keeps a private image and is quite downplayed during interviews. He has also managed to keep his name away from any recent major controversies involving his company.
9. Jack Ma
- Number of Online Articles: 14,723
Jack Ma is China’s most famous entrepreneur and the co-founder and former executive chairman for the Alibaba Group which runs an online retail service known as AliExpress in South Africa. His current net worth is $40,7-billion.
Ma is also a prominent philanthropist and has been outspoken about China’s draconian regulations around tech, which he believes are slowing down the country’s innovation and progress.
8. Jack Dorsey
- Number of Online Articles: 24,654
The second Jack on this list is the co-founder and CEO of Twitter and the CEO of financial payments firm Square.
Dorsey made most of his billions with the Blue Bird after launching the social titan in 2006 when he was far less known and far less bearded. Recently, readers will find Dorsey’s name coming up in articles detailing lawsuits or other controversies surrounding Twitter.
7. Mukesh Ambani
- Number of Online Articles: 27,683
The richest person in Asia, according to Forbes, and the 11th richest person on Earth. Ambani is a businessman by trade and the chairman and MD of India’s Reliance Industries, the most profitable company in the country.
Currently, Ambani’s media presence is centred around his announcement of a $10-billion investment in clean power and hydrogen fuel for Reliance over the next three years.
6. Richard Branson
- Number of Online Articles: 37,144
Sir Richard Branson is an English business magnate and the founder of the Virgin Group of companies, with which he has amassed most of his $4.5-billion.
Recently, Branson flew 80 KMs above New Mexico aboard his Virgin Galactic spaceship and safely returned to Earth during the vehicle’s first fully-crewed test flight to the edge of space in a watershed moment for the burgeoning space tourism industry, but in an act currently being condemned by the United Nations Secretary-General.
5. Mark Zuckerberg
- Number of Online Articles: 38,047
Most people reading this already know who Mark Zuckerberg is. The man was responsible for taking social media into the mainstream when he launched the social network, Facebook, in 2004.
Since then Zuckerberg has served as the company’s chairman, CEO and controlling shareholder.
A distinctly eccentric man, for which he is often lambasted in the media, Zuckerberg is known for both his news-making antics and for his company facing lawsuit after lawsuit, especially in terms of the privacy of Facebook users.
4. Warren Buffet
- Number of Online Articles: 45,168
The CEO of the multinational holding company Berkshire Hathaway, Buffet inhabits a special area in online media, where his name often comes up alongside business and investment advice.
At 91 years old, Buffet is by far the oldest person on this list and is one of the oldest billionaires alive with a net worth of $100.4-billion.
3. Bill Gates
- Number of Online Articles: 84,262
The co-founder of Microsoft was at one point the most famous rich person in the world in terms of mainstream popularity. His origin story of dropping out of Harvard to become one of the wealthiest people to ever live is often brought up by young entrepreneurs and rebellious teens alike.
Last year, Gates announced he would step down from Microsoft’s board of directors after serving on the position since its inception.
Amid initial announcement and media storms around the COVID-19 vaccines, Gates and his then-wife Melinda were implicated by conspiracy theorists across the internet. Now, Gates’ philanthropic pursuits fill Google newsfeeds the world over.
2. Jeff Bezos
- Number of Online Articles: 142,862
The richest man alive founded Amazon.com in a garage in Seattle – initially selling books then branching out to sell everything – with which he has made his robust $178-billion.
Bezos stepped down as Amazon’s CEO in July 2021 (he’s still executive chair) to pursue his other ventures, namely the Blue Origin space tourism company which built the spacecraft that he and 3 others successfully flew to the edge of space in.
Currently, news featuring Bezos include his pledge to donate $1-billion for nature conservation as he says that Earth looks fragile from space.
1. Elon Musk
- Number of Online Articles: 340,957
The South African-born Elon Musk is the most-talked-about entrepreneur on Earth.
Musk owns a wide and diverse range of companies, from self-driving cars with Tesla to his own carve in the space tourism niche with SpaceX and its self-landing rockets.
The tech tycoon has always positioned himself as a futurist and has earned a reputation for funding future-minded ideas into practicality – a point which has earned him his 60-million Twitter followers and his immense popularity.
He is also a distinct voice in cryptocurrency, and his tweets on the matter have influenced the market in the past.
SpaceX and his personal life (including his relationship with musician Grimes) turn a lot of mainstream attention towards Musk, but his core following will always be like-minded individuals that believe the second-richest man on Earth will finally take humans to Mars.
By Luis Monzon
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