Jeff Bezos, founder and chief of Amazon, has been ranked as the world's third richest person by Forbes magazine. Amazon's strong earnings have driven Bezos wealth to reach $65.3 billion as on Friday.
Bezos owns 18 percent stake in Amazon.
Bezos surpassed Warren Buffet, the chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, to gain the number three slot. Bill Gates, Microsoft Corp's co-founder, however, remains the world's richest man, having a net wealth of $77.7 billion, Reuters reported.
Spain's Amacio Ortega, founder of Inditex SA (owner of Zara clothing chain line), came in second with a fortune estimated to be $72.7 billion.
Warren Buffett (85), owns close to 18 percent of Berkshire Hathway. However, earlier in July, he donated $2.86 billion of Berkshire stock to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and four other family charities. The donation has led to the fall in Buffet's net worth to the fourth position.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook, an online social networking platform, ranked fifth. He has a personal wealth of $54 billion.
Here is the list of the world's richest five people:
| Rank | Name | Wealth |
| 1 | Bill Gates | $77.7 billion |
| 2 | Amacio Ortega | $72.7 billion |
| 3 | Jeff Bezos | $65.3 billion |
| 4 | Warren Buffet | $63.8 billion |
| 5 | Mark Zuckerberg | $54 billion |
Amazon beat analysts' expectations of revenues, which increased 31 percent from the last year to clock $30.4 billion for the second quarter of the financial year 2016-2017. The e-commerce major's net profit was recorded at $857 million when compared to $92 million during the corresponding quarter in the previous financial year, the BBC reported.
Amazon India launched Amazon Prime Subscription service across 100 cities earlier this week. The subscription service is expected to give a big boost to Amazon, which is in competition with Indian e-commerce firms Snapdeal and Flipkart.
