The billionaire founder of Alibaba reappeared while speaking to 100 rural teachers via a video call, three months after his last public appearance in October, causing the e-commerce company’s stock to rise more than 8% in Hong Kong.
The recording of the call was first posted on a news portal supported by the government of Zhejiang, the eastern province where Alibaba is based, and the video was verified by an Alibaba spokesman.
Speculation revolved around Ma’s whereabouts after the media reported in December that he had skipped recording a TV show he created. Ma, known for his love of spotlight, has seen his e-commerce empire Alibaba and the fintech giant Ant Group increasingly in the sights of Chinese officials in recent months.
Ma last appeared at a conference in which he criticized China’s financial regulatory system in front of a high-ranking office. His controversial remark, according to reports, prompted the Chinese regulator to abruptly interrupt Ant’s initial public offering, which would have been the biggest public sale of shares of all time.
Ant has since worked on corporate restructuring and regulatory compliance under government guidelines. Alibaba, China’s largest e-commerce platform, was also investigated when market regulators opened an investigation into its alleged monopoly practices.
Some argue that Jack Ma’s recent crackdown on the Internet empire signals Beijing’s growing unease with the country’s super-rich and private sector energy brokers.
“Today, Alibaba and its archrival, Tencent, control more personal data and are more closely involved in everyday life in China than Google, Facebook and other American technology titans are in the United States. And, like their American counterparts. , Chinese giants sometimes intimidate smaller competitors and eliminate innovation, “wrote Li Yuan for the New York Times.
“You don’t have to be a member of the Communist Party to see reasons to control them.”
In the 50-second clip, Ma is seen speaking directly to the camera against what appear to be decorative paintings depicting a typical Zhejiang water town. An art history book is shown amid a pile of books, next to a vase of fresh flowers and a ceramic statuette of a reclining and robust man who looks relaxed and content.
Ma addressed the 100 teachers who received the Jack Ma Rural Teachers Award, which was created by the Jack Ma Foundation to identify outstanding rural teachers every year. It is unclear where Ma was talking about, but the video briefly shows him visiting a rural boarding school in Zhejiang on January 10. The award ceremony was transferred online this year due to the pandemic, Ma said to recipients of the award.
When Ma announced his retirement plan, he promised to return to his teaching roots and devote more time to educational philanthropy, although the founder still has considerable control over Alibaba, maintaining a seat in the powerful Alibaba Partnership. The legendary billionaire began his career as an English teacher in Hangzhou, and at Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, he calls himself an “ambassador for rural teachers”.