Changing Fortunes

According to Bloomberg’s Billionaire index, Carlos Slim, the telecommunications magnate who controls America Movil, the leading wireless services provider in Latin America, maintained his position as the richest person on Earth in 2012. Gates stepped down from day-to-day duties at Microsoft in July 2008 to focus on philanthropy at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. But despite giving away $28 billion dollars through the foundation last year, the software mogul still ranked second on the list, with a net worth of $63.4 billion.

Nevertheless, these days, digital mega-wealth is more likely to come from the founders of internet platforms such as Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google or the UK’s Simon Nixon, co-founder of Moneysupermaket.com.

Where will it end? The IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report for the full-year 2011 revealed that digital advertising revenues from the US alone soared to a landmark high of $31 billion. That figure was a record, beating the previous record of the year before. And with mobile search and advertising still in its infancy, the prospects for the online wealth look ever brighter.