The co-founder and the executive chairman of Alibaba, Jack Ma said that he has planned to step down from the Chinese e-commerce giant on Monday for pursue alms in education, a changing of the guard for the $420 billion internet company.
Jack Ma, a former English teacher initiated Alibaba in the year 1999 and has built it in one of the world’s most significant e-commerce and the digital payment companies those are transforming how the Chinese people shop and pay for them. This charged up his work for more than $40 billion, thereby making him China’s richest ma. He is also revered by many Chinese out of those who have put his portrait in their houses and honor him in the same way as they worship the God of Wealth.
Ma is retiring as the China’s business environment has sources with Beijing and the state-owned enterprises increasingly playing more interventionist roles in the companies. Under the President Xi Jinping, China’s internet industry has been growing at its pace and has become most important thereby prompting the government for tightening its leash. The Chinese economy is also facing slow growth and the raising debt the country is complicated in the escalating trade war with the United States.
ALSO READ: Most important tips when you attend any interview
In the interview, Ma said that his retirement is not the end of the aeon but is the beginning of the aeon. He also said that the company would be spending most of his time and the fortune focused on the education. “I love education,” he said. Ma would stay on the Alibaba’s board of directors and hence continue to be the mentor of the company’s management. Ma would be turning 54 on Monday and China would be celebrating it as a holiday as 10th September is known to be Teacher’s Day in China.
This retirement makes Ma to be one of the first founders among the generation of the prominent Chinese internet entrepreneurs for stepping down from their companies. Firms like Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu and JD.com have been flourishing in the recent years thereby growing to nearly the opposing American internet giants like Google and Amazon in their scope, ambition and size. For the Chinese big shots for stepping aside in their 50’s is exceptional as they usually remain at the top of their organizations for maximum years.
The departure of Ma is likely for surprising China’s internet industry that has been dizzy from the arrest past weekend of the Liu Qiangdong, the billionaire founder of the online retailer JD.com Liu, who goes by the Richard Liu in English speaking world which was arrested on the rape allegation in the Minneapolis during the business trip. He was also released and his sincere returns to Beijing where in JD.com is based.
Ma’s retirement completes the transition of power to other activities for Alibaba. Ma has stepped down as the Chief Executive of Alibaba in the year 2013; the company’s current chief executive is Daniel Zhang, who is a candidate to succeed Ma. Yet Ma had remained active as the face of the e-commerce firm, as well as an architect of its long-term strategy. He owns a 6.4 percent stake of Alibaba, according to securities filings, but has considerably more sway over the company thanks to its complicated legal structure.
Ma, a natural salesman and charismatic leader, co-founded Alibaba with 17 others — some of them his students — out of his apartment in Hangzhou in eastern Zhejiang province in 1999. Alibaba started as an online marketplace for businesses to sell their products to other businesses. But it did not take off until it began the Taobao marketplace in 2003, which merchants used to sell goods directly to consumers. Alibaba later rolled out Alipay, an online payment service, to facilitate transactions in a country where few people had credit cards. Alipay later became Ant Financial, the financial subsidiary that Ma also controls.
Today, Alibaba’s empire encompasses e-commerce, online banking, cloud computing, digital media and entertainment — and even a corporate messaging service similar to Slack. The company owns or holds stakes in some of China’s most important media assets, including the Twitter-like social media site Weibo and the Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper The South China Morning Post.
Among China’s biggest companies, Alibaba is viewed as one of the firms with the deepest ranks of management talent. Many of the co-founders are still around, and professionals who joined the company later are now in charge. Last month, Alibaba reported a 60 percent increase in quarterly sales, even as profits fell. The company’s annual revenue totals about 250 billion yuan, or $40 billion.
While Alibaba has become dominant in China, it has faced a tougher time expanding internationally. The company has increased its presence outside China by investing in e-commerce and online finance companies in India and Southeast Asia. But its efforts to muscle into the United States largely have not been successful.
ALSO READ: Do You Know The Top Most And Fastest Growing Jobs In The Indian Tech Industry
