The billionaire founder of Alibaba made an appearance again when he spoke to 100 rural teachers via a video call, three months after his last public appearance in October, sending the e-commerce firm’s shares up more than 8% in Hong Kong.
The call recording was first posted on News portal With the support of the government of Zhejiang, the eastern province where Alibaba is headquartered, the video was verified by a spokesperson for Alibaba.
Speculation spread about what place After media reported in December that he skipped recording a TV show he had created. Ma, who is known for his love of the limelight, has seen the e-commerce empire Alibaba and the fintech giant Ant Group come under fire in recent months.
What finally appeared in public at a conference criticizing the Chinese financial regulation system in front of a room of senior officials. His reportedly controversial remark, Suddenly pushed the Chinese regulator to stop Ant’s initial public offering, which would have been The largest public sale of shares ever.
Ant has since been working on corporate restructuring and regulatory compliance under government directives. Alibaba, the largest e-commerce platform in China, has also come under scrutiny as market regulators have opened an investigation into its alleged monopolistic practices.
Some argue that the recent crackdown on Jack Ma’s internet empire indicates Beijing’s growing concern about private power brokers and the country’s wealthy.
Today, Alibaba and its main competitor, Tencent, control more personal data and are more closely involved in everyday life in China than Google, Facebook and other American tech giants in the United States. And like their American counterparts, the Chinese giants sometimes bully small competitors and kill 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 restrain them.”
In the 50-second clip, what appears directly to the camera is seen against what appear to be decorative panels depicting a typical water town in Zhejiang. The art history book is displayed in a pile of books, alongside a vase of fresh flowers and a ceramic statue of a burly man lying down, relaxed and convinced.
Ma addressed the 100 recipients of the Jack Ma Prize for Rural Educators, which was created by the Jack Ma Foundation to identify outstanding rural teachers each year. It’s unclear where what happened, but the video briefly shows him visiting a rural boarding school in Zhejiang on January 10. The award ceremony was moved online this year due to the pandemic, Ma told the award recipient.
When he announced his retirement plan, he pledged to return to his educational assets Devote more time to educational charitable work, Although the founder still wields great influence over Alibaba by holding a seat in power Alibaba partnership. The legendary billionaire started his career as an English teacher in Hangzhou, and on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, he has dubbed himself “Ambassador of Countryside Teachers”.
