The business with the blue haze

Almost unnoticed, the e-cigarette industry has grown strongly in China. Hardly anyone embodies this boom as much as Kate Wang. In 2018, the young Chinese woman began selling e-cigarettes and so-called vaping products – pens for vapor inhalation of liquids containing nicotine – in China’s cities. Barely three years later, Kate Wang is one of China’s richest women, with a personal fortune of around $10 billion. The company she founded, Relx, is one of the two major top dogs in the industry. Only Smoore International is slightly more successful as the world’s largest e-cigarette manufacturer. Its founder Chen Zhiping has amassed a fortune of around $16 billion in a short time.