RICHARD GOULDING

Birth Place: New York

Richard Goulding, 39, the chairman and co-founder, Play.com. It should be listed within the New Media list. Privately listed, Play.com is the UK’s third largest online retailer behind Amazon and Ebay, yet are UK based and not backed by a huge American conglomerate Play.com’s turnover in the 12 months to January 31 is likely to hit £340 million, up from £290 million last year Net worth about £80+millions.

Founded in 1998, Play.com was one of the first online retailers targeting the UK.It is the second biggest online retailer in the UK market, according to traffic monitor Hitwise, and it is in the top 50 globally. Play.com was ranked second on the November 2006 UK “Hot Shops List” compiled by IMRG and Hitwise. Play.com has 7,000,000 registered customers, a catalogue of over 8,000,000 products, and it employs some 500 staff.

On 15 January 2009, a survey published by Verdict Research found Play.com was the UK’s second favourite music and video retailer, behind first place Amazon.co.uk and ahead of entertainment retailer Zavvi who came in third. On 24 February 2009, it was reported that Play.com had topped the National Consumer Satisfaction Index , ahead of Amazon.co.uk and iTunes.