Hurun's rankings now self-promotion

HURUN REPORT, which produces various lists about the rich in China, recently released a list showing that 30 mainland entrepreneurs cashed in 83.8 billion yuan ($12.07 billion) in the past year, an increase of 4 percent over last year. Rednet.com comments:

It seems Hurun is busy making lists about Chinese entrepreneurs every day. It has already released six lists ranking Chinese entrepreneurs and one for Indian entrepreneurs in October alone.

Almost every time it releases one of its rankings, there will be people who pick out mistakes. The number of mistakes spotted has increased together with the growing frequency of its lists, and its credibility has been hit as a result.

It seems Hurun Report has shifted its main business from analysis to public relations. It is trying to find opportunities to hype up its lists instead of concentrating on compiling them.

The most recent list on entrepreneurs who've cashed in shares is a good example. As the A-share market dropped for a few days last week, many were eyeing what the entrepreneurs were doing. The list of entrepreneurs who've cashed in the most shares misled people into believing they were leaving the market and prompted them not to buy shares in the market, which in turn caused stocks to further fall.

By doing so, Hurun has disregarded what negative effects it might cast upon the entrepreneurs involved, or whether its deeds might hurt the capital market. All it wanted to do is to hype itself up.

Actually, the most recent cashing in list only tells part of the truth. For example, it said Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, cashed in 11 billion yuan ($1.58 billion) of his holdings in Alibaba. What it did not say is that Ma sold the shares to honor his promise to donate money to a charity fund.

Lists are OK, but we do not need so many lists, especially lists with inaccurate, misleading information.