Beijing, China
It is him Businessman The most famous in China and the symbol of “self-made man” for his compatriots. At 56, Jack Ma will have to deal with the revenge of the authorities, who seem determined to cut off their wings.
This Thursday, State Administration for Market Regulation in China shook the Chinese business world, with Alibaba and its charismatic founder Jack Ma symbolizing the success of e-commerce, announcing that the Internet giant will be investigated for “suspicious monopoly practices.”
It is former English teacher, officially “retired” from Alibaba last year, received an insult from the financial regulators, who also contacted Ant Group, a subsidiary of Alibaba, the world leader in online payments and whose Ma is the largest shareholder, to talk about “supervision and advice”.
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This came just weeks after Beijing thwarted the company’s IPO, with which Jack Ma believed his fortune would exceed $ 70,000 million (60,000 million euros).
This fiasco cost Jack Ma billions, including the loss of China’s first fortune, estimated at $ 58 billion.
President Xi Jinping’s power seems determined to fight the monopolistic tendencies of private groups such as Alibaba, whose online sales platforms are used by hundreds of millions of Chinese.
An unprecedented failure for this millionaire, who first anticipated the evolution of his compatriots towards e-commerce when he co-founded Alibaba in 1999.
The Chinese media often remembers his humble origins, a father who struggled to feed his family, poor school results and small, poorly paid jobs until Alibaba was set up in an apartment in Hangzhu, eastern China, with a capital $ 60,000 he borrowed from friends.
Jack Ma (whose Chinese name is Ma Yun) decided to give up his professorship after discovering the Internet and the opportunity for companies to change their assets online.
This man quickly understood the potential of smartphones and was a pioneer, with his Alipay service, mobile electronic payment, now ubiquitous in China, gaining a visionary reputation.
Michael Jackson and the Communist Party
“The first time I used the internet, I typed and said to myself, ‘This is something that will change the world and China,'” he told CNN.
The take-off of Alibaba’s online trading platform, Taobao, forced US eBay to virtually withdraw from the Chinese market in 2006, releasing its rival.
Jack Ma is known for his eccentricities, in a rather serious Chinese business world. Much admired by his employees, he was often compared to Steve Jobs, the legendary co-founder of Apple, although his style is more relaxed.
The successful and atypical businessman is at the same time a follower of tai chi, a traditional Chinese gymnast for inner and physical balance, took the stage at a pet party disguised as Michael Jackson and is a member of the very austere Chinese Communist Party (CCP). ) to power.
From Davos to Wall Street, he struggled with global personalities and promised Donald Trump that he would create a million jobs in January 2017, when the American billionaire was to enter the White House.
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He then withdrew that promise, using the argument of Trump’s trade war against China.
In September 2018, Jack Ma announced that he would retire a year later, when he turned 55, to dedicate himself to philanthropic projects in the field of education, which recalled the path followed by one of his models, Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
His rise has always won criticism and enmity at the head of the Communist Party.
Maybe Jack Ma will have to rethink the slogan that led to his career and which he made clear in 2007 in Davos, the world financial event: “My philosophy is to be in love with power without marrying her.”