Alibaba founder Jack Ma makes rare public appearance in China
The return of China’s best-known entrepreneur could help allay concerns from private sector companies following a regulatory crackdown.
Jack Ma, the founder of tech giant Alibaba, has rarely appeared in public in China, possibly a sign of the government’s efforts to assuage concerns in the country’s tech sector after a bloody two-year regulatory crackdown.
China’s best-known entrepreneur has kept a low profile since late 2020, when a speech he delivered attacking Chinese regulators was followed by Beijing pulling back the planned IPO of Alibaba subsidiary Ant Group. Subsequently, the company was fined a record $2.75 billion for alleged unfair practices.
Ma has been spotted around the world for the past two years and reportedly lived in Japan for much of 2022.
He returned to China last week, two knowledgeable sources quoted by Reuters news agency said. It was not clear how long he plans to stay in China.
School attendance
On Monday, he visited a school founded by partners of Alibaba in the eastern city of Hangzhou, according to a post on the school’s official social media account.
Ma, a former English teacher, met with staff and visited classrooms before speaking about the challenges artificial intelligence (AI) can pose for education.
“ChatGPT and similar technologies are just the beginning of the AI era,” Ma quoted in the post. “We should use artificial intelligence to solve problems instead of being controlled by it.”
Ma was one of the most high-profile targets of a crackdown by officials against alleged anti-competitive practices by some of China’s biggest names in tech, driven by fears that big internet companies held too much data and had expanded too quickly.
Ant Group said in January that Ma had transferred control of the fintech company and adjusted its ownership structure so that “no shareholder, alone or jointly with other parties, will have control over Ant Group.”
In a sign that the official grip may now be loosening, authorities said in December that Ant had received approval to raise 10.5 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) for its consumer finance division.
Analysts said Ma’s public re-emergence supports the government’s softening tone towards the private sector as leaders try to prop up an economy battered by three years of COVID-19 restrictions.
Ma’s return “solidifies the sentiment of the broader platform and internet industry,” Zhang Zihua, chief investment officer at Beijing Yunyi Asset Management, told Reuters.
“Because that means that the new top leadership has indeed reconsidered the position and importance of the platform companies in China’s economic development.”
“The previous restrictive policies on the platform and internet sector are also expected to be adjusted,” Zhang added.
Alibaba shares rose more than 4 percent on news of Ma’s return to China before she gave up some of the gains.