ALIBABA’S INNOVATIVE LEADER TO STEP AWAY

JACK Ma, who founded e-commerce giant Alibaba Group and helped launch China’s e-commerce boom, announced yesterday he would step down as the company’s chairman next September.

In a letter released by Alibaba, Mr Ma said he would be succeeded by chief executive Daniel Zhang, to whom he had handed over the CEO post in 2013 as part of what he said was a longplanned succession process.

A former English teacher, Mr Ma founded Alibaba in 1999 in an apartment in Hangzhou to connect Chinese exporters with foreign retailers. It expanded into consumer retailing, online finance, cloud computing and other services, becoming the world’s biggest e-commerce company by total value of goods sold across all its platforms.

The businessman, who turned 54 yesterday, became one of the world’s richest entrepreneurs and one of China’s best-known business figures. The Hurun Run report, which follows China’s wealthy, estimates his net worth at $37 billion.

Alibaba said Mr Ma would remain a member of the Alibaba Partnership, a group of 36 people that has the right to nominate a majority of the company’s board of directors.

“This transition demonstrates that Alibaba has stepped up to the next level of corporate governance from a company that relies on individuals, to one built on systems of organisational excellence and a culture of talent development,” Mr Ma said in his letter.

He said he wanted to “return to education” but gave no details of his plans.

Alibaba was founded at a time when few Chinese used the internet. As internet use spread, the company expanded into consumerfocused retailing and services. Few Chinese used credit cards, so Alibaba created its own online payments system, Alipay.

Mr Ma, known in Chinese as Ma Yun, has become one of China’s best-known public figures. He appears regularly on television. At an annual Alibaba employee festival, he has sung pop songs in costumes that have included blond wigs and leather jackets.

He pokes fun at his own appearance, saying his oversize head and angular features make him look like the alien in director Steven Spielberg’s movie E.T. The Extraterrestrial.

He also became one of the best-known Chinese businesspeople abroad. The company’s $25 billion initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2014 was the biggest to date by a Chinese company.

Alipay became a freestanding financial company, Ant Financial, in 2014. Alibaba also has expanded into entertainment, set up its own film studio and invested in logistics and delivery services.

Alibaba reported profit last year of $9.8 billion.