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Al-Jaba co-founder and chief executive, Jack Ma, said he plans to leave the Chinese e-commerce giant on Monday to pursue philanthropic activities in the education sector, a relegation of the 420 Internet company billions of dollars.
A former English teacher, Mr. Ma founded Alibaba in 1999 as one of the world's largest e-commerce and digital payment companies, transforming the way Chinese people buy and pay for things. This has fueled his net worth of more than $ 40 billion, making him the richest man in China. He is revered by many Chinese, some of whom have portrayed their homes and adore them in the same way as they worship the God of wealth.
Mr. Ma is retiring as the business environment in China has deteriorated, with Beijing and state-owned enterprises increasingly playing the role of business interventionist. Under Xi Jinping's presidency, the Chinese Internet industry has grown and pushed the government to tighten the leash. The Chinese economy is also facing slower growth and rising debt, and the country is involved in a growing trade war with the United States.
In an interview, Ma said his retirement was not the end of an era but "the beginning of an era". He said he would spend more time and money on education. "I like education," he said.
Mr. Ma will remain on Alibaba's board of directors and will continue to oversee the management of the company. Mr. Ma will be 54 years old Monday, a holiday in China, known as Teachers Day.
This retreat makes Mr. Ma one of the first founders of a generation of prominent Chinese Internet entrepreneurs to leave their businesses. Companies like Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu and JD.com have flourished in recent years, becoming almost American rivals like Amazon and Google in terms of size, scope and ambition. For Chinese magnates, retiring in their fifties is rare; they usually stay at the top of their organizations for many years.
Ma's departure is likely to tip China's Internet industry arrested last weekend Liu Qiangdong, the billionaire founder of online retailer JD.com. Mr. Liu, who is passing through Richard Liu in the Anglo-Saxon world, was arrested for an allegation of rape in Minneapolis during a business trip. He has been released and has since returned to Beijing, where JD.com is based.
For Alibaba, Ma's retirement completes a power transition to other leaders. Mr. Ma left his position as Managing Director of Alibaba in 2013; The current general manager of the company is Daniel Zhang, Mr. Ma's successor candidate. Yet Mr. Ma remained the active face of the e-commerce business and the architect of his long-term strategy. It holds a 6.4% stake in Alibaba, depending on the securities deposits.
Mr. Ma, a natural products salesman and charismatic leader, co-founded Alibaba with 17 other people, some of whom were his students, in 1999, from his Hangzhou apartment in eastern Zhejiang.
Alibaba started as an online market for companies to sell their products to other companies. But it did not take off until Taobao market launch in 2003, which traders were selling directly to consumers. Alibaba then deployed 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 Mr. Ma also controls.
Today, Alibaba's empire includes e-commerce, online banking, cloud computing, digital media and entertainment – and even a corporate messaging service similar to Slack. The company owns or holds shares in some of China's leading media, including the Twitter-like Weibo social media site and the South China Morning Post's Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper.
Among the largest Chinese companies, Alibaba is perceived as one of the best-placed companies in terms of management. Many of the co-founders are still there and the professionals who joined the company afterwards are now in charge.
Last month, Alibaba recorded a 60% increase in their quarterly sales, even as profits fell. The annual turnover of the company amounts to about 250 billion yuan, or 40 billion dollars.
While Alibaba has become dominant in China, it has had to face a more difficult growth period internationally. The company has expanded its presence outside China by investing in e-commerce and online finance companies in India and Southeast Asia. But his efforts to muscle the United States have not been successful.
Even after Ma met with President-elect Donald J. Trump in early 2017 and promised to bring a million jobs to the United States, the federal government rejected Ant Financial's bid to acquire the MoneyGram money transfer this year. .
As Beijing has increased its involvement in the private sector, Ma has changed his discourse on the Chinese government. He used to say that businesses had to be in love with the government but never get married, indicating that an arm's length relationship was preferable.
At a conference last November, Mr. Ma was more positive. "There is no country like China in the world," he said. "With political stability, social security and economic growth of 6% and more, we have the best business environment."
As Alibaba flourished, Mr. Ma has repeatedly talked about how he did not want to spend his entire life in the company, saying that he would retire someday and return to teaching. .
In 2014, he created the Jack Ma Foundation, which worked to improve education in rural China. Mr. Ma's social media, Weibo, is "spokesperson for village teachers – Jack Ma". At Alibaba, he is known as "Master Ma".
Mr. Ma said that he could never be as rich as Mr. Gates – but that he could retire earlier than Mr. Gates. Gates stepped down as president of Microsoft in 2014, at the age of 58.
Follow Li Yuan on Twitter: @ LiYuan6.
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