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Mark Zuckerberg sprints past Google co-founders on list of wealthiest people

After Facebook's strong second quarter results, founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg is now worth $33.3 billion, placing him at number 16 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. 

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Rick Wilking/REUTERS
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg walks with his wife, Priscilla Chan, at a conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, in July 2013.

Don't let Mark Zuckerberg's penchant for hoodies fool you – he can afford to dress a bit better than that. How much better? Oh, by about $33.3 billion. 

The Facebook founder and chief executive is now worth more than Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, as well as Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos, landing Mr. Zuckerberg at the No. 16 spot on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. 

Zuckerberg added $1.6 billion to his wealth in the wake of strong second quarter results, Bloomberg reported. 

"We had a good second quarter," Zuckerberg said in a statement. "Our community has continued to grow, and we see a lot of opportunity ahead as we connect the rest of the world."

Facebook reported a 61-percent revenue growth in which the social media giant took in $2.91 billion, exceeding analysts' expectations of around $2.81 billion, according to Bloomberg. That's also more than the $1.81 billion Facebook took in during the second quarter of 2013.

"The company’s success is growing by the minute," David Kirkpatrick, author of "The Facebook Effect," told Bloomberg. "There’s no sign it's going to slow anytime soon."

Much of that growth comes from Facebook's success in mobile advertising. The California-based company took in $2.68 billion in advertising revenue during the second quarter, a 67 percent increase from this time last year. And around 62 percent of ad revenue came from mobile ads, an uptick from approximately 41 percent of total ad revenue in the second quarter of 2013. 

Recent months have seen Facebook making aggressive moves to accelerate its mobile strategy. Last month, David Marcus, the former president of PayPal, announced he would be joining Facebook as vice president of messaging products. Mr. Marcus' decision to join Facebook came on the heels of Facebook's fourth-quarter results, which revealed that mobile ad revenue had for the first time outpaced the site's desktop ad revenue. 

Facebook's mobile strategy has also led to app splintering in a ploy to generate more revenue by having different mobile apps that consumers can download, each of which can provide its own platform to target consumers with ads. Examples include Paper, an app that curates Facebook news feed content; Instagram; Facebook Messenger; and its acquisition of messaging service WhatsApp for $19 billion of cash and stock.

While Facebook does in fact generate sales in other arenas besides advertising – which now includes users being able to purchase items directly from advertisements in their Facebook news feeds, turning Facebook into an online retailer of sorts – it is a paltry sum compared to the amount it takes in from ad revenue. 

Among the others on the Bloomberg Index, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates sits at the top with a net worth of $84.7 billion. He's followed by Carlos Slim of Mexico, who controls America Movil, the fourth largest mobile network operator in the world. 

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