The Chinese billionaire behind e-commerce giant Alibaba and the online payment processor Ant Group, is suspected missing amid reports that he hasn’t been seen in more than two months.
Jack Ma, whose net worth is estimated at nearly $50 billion and is among those most influential men in China, was last seen in public at the Bund Global Financial Summit in Shanghai on Oct. 24. At the event, he hailed the upcoming Ant Group IPO as “the largest [listing] in human history.”
Ma also used the speech to raise concerns with China’s economic policies and system of banking.
“Today’s financial system is the legacy of the Industrial Age,” Ma said. “We must set up a new one for the next generation and young people. We must reform the current system.”
He said Chinese regulators relied on a “pawnshop mentality,” according to a transcript of his speech, and said the current system presented “a serious problem in China and has affected a lot of entrepreneurs.”
“It is impossible for the pawnshop mentality of collaterals to support what global development demands of finance over the next 30 years. We must leverage our technological capabilities today and build a credit system based on big data in place of the pawnshop mentality,” Ma said. “Even a beggar needs to have good credit.”
Following Ma’s remarks, China’s securities watchdog canceled Ant Group’s $37 billion IPO, and authorities summoned Ma for questioning, according to Time magazine. In December, Ant Group was forced to restructure its operations in order for its IPO to be approved, a move that cost the company billions from its anticipated valuation.
Ma also failed to appear for the final episode of his talent show, Africa’s Business Heroes, a philanthropic endeavor that pits African entrepreneurs against one another for a chance to win part of a $1.5 million prize, according to Yahoo Finance. An Alibaba spokesperson told the Financial Times that Ma was unable to attend “due to a schedule conflict.”
Ma stepped down as Alibaba’s chairman in October to dedicate himself to philanthropy. During the coronavirus pandemic, Ma’s foundation sent personal protective equipment to 150 countries, including millions of masks to the United States.
Some analysts say Ma’s focus on charitable giving led him to lose sight of the Chinese Communist Party’s grip on private enterprise.
“The government is reminding companies that, at the end of the day, we’re the ones who make the regulations, we’re the ones who issue the licenses,” Beijing-based Marbridge Consulting founder Mark Natkin told Time. “And if you forget, then you may find an entire area of your business doesn’t get licensed, or your IPO gets halted, or whatever we need to do just to make sure you know who’s the parent and who’s the child.”
