Hong Kong News

Nonpartisan, Noncommercial, unconstrained.
Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Alibaba Founder Jack Ma Retires After 20 Years in Leadership

Two decades after laying the foundation for a company that became one of the world’s titans of e-commerce, Jack Ma stepped down from his position as executive chairman of Alibaba Group. In an open letter last year announcing his retirement, the 55-year-old billionaire said he planned to invest more time and resources in education, philanthropy, and the environment - and “will not allow myself to sit idle.”

A former English teacher, Ma founded Alibaba in 1999 as a fledgling e-commerce company of just 18 people. Today, it has morphed into a multibillion-dollar empire spanning the sectors of entertainment, media, cloud computing, and more.

Ma has steered Alibaba - headquartered in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou — to almost unparalleled success, while also cultivating an image of himself as an influential figure with exceptional oratory skills, capable of appealing to investors’ emotions and even driving them to tears. A month after revelations of his status as a Communist Party member in November 2018 surprised some, Ma was among 100 individuals honored by the central government for making “outstanding contributions” to the country’s reform and opening-up — or essentially being a global ambassador of China.

Upon announcing last year that he would pass the title of executive chairman of Alibaba to Daniel Zhang, the company’s CEO, Ma expressed “complete confidence” that Zhang and his team would lead Alibaba in the right direction going forward.

As Ma steps away from the corporate spotlight, Sixth Tone looks at some of the notable — and sometimes even controversial — philosophies and opinions he espoused during his tenure at the helm of Alibaba.


Work-Life Balance


Before launching an e-commerce empire, Ma maintains that he struggled to find a job, and that he was even rejected for a position at fast-foot chain KFC. Then in 1994, he heard about the internet, and quickly identified the nascent technology as a potential game-changer.

During a 2010 interview with the American television journalist Charlie Rose, Ma explained how he used the internet to create jobs and help businesses grow. He said he worshipped his career and devoted so much of his time to work “because of the excitement and because I really treasure and honor this opportunity in my life.”

Nearly a decade later, Ma’s views seem to remain much the same. Earlier this year, he defended the culture of overwork that has become pervasive in China’s tech industry and startups. His remarks sparked a rare backlash on the country’s social media platforms.

“If we find things we like, 996 is not a problem,” Ma wrote on microblogging platform Weibo, using the now-viral number representing the 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week work schedule. He added that people with an aversion to long hours “won’t taste the happiness and rewards of hard work.”

At the 2019 World AI Conference last month, however, Ma said technological advances will make people’s lives easier to the point that they won’t need to work endlessly in the future. “I think people should work three days a week, four hours a day,” he said. “I think because of artificial intelligence, people will have more time to enjoy being human beings. … I don’t think we need a lot of jobs. At that time, the jobs we need are to make people happier, make people experience life, enjoy the human beings.”


Empowering Women


Of the 18 people who started Alibaba, six were women. Today, the same ratio of women can be found among the company’s executive leadership — far from equal, yet still progressive by China business standards.

During Alibaba’s inaugural Global Conference on Women and Entrepreneurship in May 2015, Ma described the company’s female staff as the “secret sauce” behind its success. “Completing a task ordinarily depends on men — but doing it well will have to depend on women,” he said last month at this year’s women’s conference. “To complete (a task) brilliantly will require both men and women.”

Also at this year’s conference, Ma stressed gender equality as one of the most important issues of the 21st century. One of his last wishes before retiring, he said, was that he should never see the company’s workforce dip below the threshold of 33% female.

But Ma’s comments on the skewed gender ratio in tech have fallen flat at times, too, and even been called out as politically incorrect. His admission at this year’s women’s conference that he hopes to be a woman “in my next life,” for example, was criticized as tone-deaf. And at a group wedding for Alibaba employees in May, Ma’s lewd wordplay on 996 — saying what people really want is “669” — raised plenty of eyebrows online.


A Shift in Education


Ma’s first love has always been teaching. Even as one of the world’s most recognizable businesspeople, he has been a vocal advocate for improving rural education in China. His nonprofit, the Jack Ma Foundation, has launched several programs aimed at developing leadership skills and encouraging more people to teach in underserved areas — including a 2015 initiative to cultivate teaching talent in the countryside.

“Rural education is the hope and the future of China,” Ma said during a graduation ceremony for rural educators who completed a three-year training program offered by Alibaba and Hangzhou Normal University.

Ma has also been pushing for a paradigm shift in how children are taught. During last year’s World Economic Forum in Switzerland, he stressed that the knowledge-based approach to education that most societies have relied on for the past 200 years will not prepare the next generation of leaders to compete with technology.

And at this year’s forum, he picked up where he left off. “What’s the things that we have to teach (for) kids to be more creative, innovative, and do things machines cannot do?” he said. “It’s the value they believe in, the mission. The machines, in the future, they have chips — but the human beings have the heart. The heart is where the value, the mission (is). So this is what I think: The education system, we need to move to that direction.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

Hong Kong News
0:00
0:00
Close
It's always the people with the dirty hands pointing their fingers
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
Steve Jobs' Son Launches Venture Capital Firm With $200 Million For Cancer Treatments
Google reshuffles Assistant unit, lays off some staffers, to 'supercharge' products with A.I.
End of Viagra? FDA approved a gel against erectile dysfunction
UK sanctions Russians judges over dual British national Kara-Murza's trial
US restricts visa-free travel for Hungarian passport holders because of security concerns
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Political leader from South Africa, Julius Malema, led violent racist chants at a massive rally on Saturday
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
'I am not your servant': IndiGo crew member, passenger get into row over airline meal
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Spanish Citizenship Granted to Iranian chess player who removed hijab
US Senate Republican Mitch McConnell freezes up, leaves press conference
Speaker McCarthy says the United States House of Representatives is getting ready to impeach Joe Biden.
San Francisco car crash
This camera man is a genius
3D ad in front of Burj Khalifa
Next level gaming
BMW driver…
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The politician and the journalist lost control and started fighting on live broadcast.
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
Joe Biden admitted, in his own words, that he delivered what he promised in exchange for the $10 million bribe he received from the Ukraine Oil Company.
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
×