Alibaba founder appears

Shanghai: Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma met 100 rural teachers in China via a live video meeting yesterday, in the businessman’s first appearance since October, triggering a sharp jump in the Hong Kong listed shares of the ecommerce giant.

Social media speculation about the whereabouts of China’s highestprofile entrepreneur swirled this month after reports he had missed the final episode of a TV show featuring him as a judge, amid a regulatory clampdown by Beijing on his sprawling business empire.

Ma had not appeared in public since October 24, where he blasted China’s regulatory system in a speech at a Shanghai forum that set him on a collision course with officials, leading to suspension of a $US37billion ($NZ52billion) IPO of Alibaba’s financial affiliate Ant Group.