Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma stepped down as chairman of the world’s largest e-commerce company on Tuesday. Ma is China’s wealthiest entrepreneur. He left his post on his 55th anniversary. The process to find Ma’s successor began a year ago. Ma however will continue to be a member of the Alibaba Partnership. The Alibaba Partnership is a 36-member group, which has the authority to nominate most directors of the company. Alibaba is the 7th largest listed company in the world with a market capitalization of $ 480 billion.
- Post left on 55th anniversary
- Ma has been China’s wealthiest and famous entrepreneur
- The process of finding a successor started a year ago
- Alibaba is the world’s 7th largest public company
Teacher’s day election to leave office
Jack Ma elected September 10 to step down as the executive chairman of Alibaba. In China, this date is celebrated as Teachers’ Day. It is also the 55th anniversary of Ma. Significantly, Ma was the first English teacher.
Ma was a teacher of English before establishing Alibaba
Ma was the first English teacher. He founded Alibaba in 1999. The initial motive for setting up Alibaba was to connect Chinese exporters with American retailers. The company later shifted its focus to China’s consumer market. The company then entered areas such as online banking, entertainment and cloud computing. Domestic business accounted for 66 per cent of the company’s total revenue of $ 16.7 billion in the June quarter.
Alibaba started when no internet was available in China
Alibaba was founded at a time when the number of people using the Internet in China was negligible. As Internet usage grew, the company expanded into consumer-based retailing and services. In China, fewer people used credit cards, so Alibaba created the Ali pay online payment system.
Jack Ma’s wealth worth three lakh crores
Jack Ma’s assets are valued at $ 41.8 billion (about Rs 3.007 lakh crore). According to Bloomberg Billionaire Index, only India’s Mukesh Ambani in Asia is richer than Jack Ma. Ma became Asia’s richest person in 2016. He took the title after beating Dalian Wanda Group Chairman Wang Jianlin. Today however, the title is held by Mukesh Ambani. In a 2015 interview, Ma had reported that his job application was rejected by KFC once. He is currently the 21st richest person in the world according to the latest Forbes list.
