Highlights:
- Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma has reportedly not appeared in public for over two months as suspected to be missing
- Jack Ma, the Chinese billionaire is suspected of gone missing after he made a controversial speech on the 24th of October wherein he accused China of stifling innovation
- In late December, the Chinese regulators had suddenly halted Ant’s blockbuster $37 billion initial public offering
According to some media sources, Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma, who has been under investigation by China’s government since the sudden suspension of Ant’s blockbuster $37 billion initial public offering (IPO) in Shanghai and Hong Kong, has not been seen in public since October. Reports indicate that Jack Ma did not even turn up in November for the final episode of his own talent show, Africa’s Business Heroes, and an Alibaba executive took his place at the show.
On social media as well, the business tycoon has been missing. His last Twitter post was on October 10th.
I am honored to partner with HRH The Duke of Cambridge @KensingtonRoyal & other global leaders and organizations to support the @EarthshotPrize and tackle the environmental challenges we all face. Together, we can protect our planet from climate change! https://t.co/0ax1imIZMC pic.twitter.com/EN6yissNGI
— Jack Ma (@JackMa) October 10, 2020
After amassing hundreds of millions of users and gaining control over almost every aspect of everyday life in China, Alibaba and competitors such as Tencent Holdings are facing rising pressure from regulators.
An investigation into Ma’s e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding was initiated last month by China’s antitrust authorities, and China’s central bank asked the group to shake up its lending and other consumer finance operations.
Also Read: China Asks Jack Ma’s Ant Group to Return to It’s Payment Roots
In Shanghai and Hong Kong, the Chinese regulators had earlier suddenly halted Ant’s blockbuster $37 billion initial public offering. On November 5, the Ant Group IPO, which was touted as the world’s largest public offering and was expected to be listed simultaneously on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges, was halted less than 48 hours before going public in China.
In the meantime, Jack Ma had famously attacked Chinese regulators in an address in October for ‘lagging the times.’
With millions of customers and billions of dollars in turnover, Jack Ma’s Alibaba is arguably the world’s biggest e-commerce turnover. It has three major sites, namely Taobao, Alibaba.com and Tmall.
In India, Alibaba has investments in the payment company Paytm and its e-commerce arm Paytm Mall, online grocer BigBasket, online retailer Snapdeal, a food delivery start-up Zomato.
