7 Surprising Facts about Jack Ma's Disappearance

Once the wealthiest man on the most populated continent in the world, has reportedly lost $61.7 Million within the last three years, in the wake of his controversial comments about the Chinese government. where Ma accused the Chinese banks of behaving like “pawnshops”. He had also accused the banks of lending only to those who could put up collateral, while also castigating financial regulators for being obsessed with minimizing risk. All of this has supposedly led to his 'disappearance' and people have started raising all sorts of questions regarding the once revolutionary business tycoon's disappearance. With today's article, let us dive deeper into the mysteries of it all and unravel the facts.

But before that and for those of you wondering who Jack Ma is, let's find out.

Who is Jack Ma?

Jack Ma is a Chinese entrepreneur who was head of the Alibaba group. It comprised of several China's most popular websites out of which the most popular were the B2B marketplace Alibaba.com and the shopping site Taobao.com. Ma was immensely fascinated with the English language and graduated with a bachelor's degree in English in the year 1988. From 1988 to 1993, Ma taught English at the Hangzhou Institute of Electronics and Engineering. Driven by his passion for the language, in 1994, he founded his first company, the Haibo Translation Agency, which provided English translation and interpretation. Later on, Ma became the head of an Internet company in Beijing that was backed by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Affairs, but in an interview, he said that he felt that if he remained with the government, he would miss out on the economic opportunities that the Internet in those days was bringing. Jack Ma is 5'0 and married to Zhang Ying.

Jack Ma's revolutionary success in the digital world.

In 1995, While on a trip to the United States on behalf of the Hangzhou city government, Ma noticed a lack of Chinese Websites and believed it to be an amazing opportunity. Upon his return, he founded 'China Pages', which created websites for Chinese businesses and was one of China's first internet companies. However, in the face of strong competition from the communications company Hangzhou Telecom', Jack Ma left China Pages two years later. While working as the head of the internet company in Beijing, his FOMO on the internet opportunities made him persuade his team at the ministry to go back to Hangzhou with him, where he founded the Alibaba group. It launched a website that facilitated deals between small businesses, as Ma was very well convinced that the small-business-to-small-business Internet market had a much greater potential for growth than the business-to-consumer Internet market. In 2003, to further instill confidence in online sales, Alipay was created to act as a third party in transactions. In 2005, Yahoo's attention was drawn to the rapid growth of Alibaba and the internet portal ended up purchasing a 40% stake in the company. In its Initial public offering (IPO) In Hong Kong, Alibaba.com raised 1.7 Billion dollars. Impressive right?

But what if I were to tell you Jack Ma had another company, Taobao which in Chinese meant "Searching for treasure"? It was created in 2003 as a consumer-to-consumer online marketplace, that further went ahead and replaced the American company eBay. At that time, eBay was in collaboration with the Chinese company EachNet and had a market share of 80%. Ma figured out that eBay's policy of charging users a transaction fee was a weakness, and therefore with Taobao, he did not charge such a fee and instead chose to make money from online advertising and the sale of additional services to users. This strategy of him resulted in Taobao having a 67% market share by 2007. Now THAT's what we call entrepreneurship!

Taobao further went on to split into three companies in 2011, and in 2016, Jack Ma became Asia's wealthiest man with a then $41.8 Billion net worth. But it makes one think what caused such an unstoppable man to recede into the background? Let's Unravel a few facts about Jack Ma's apparent 'Downfall'.

Jack Ma's ANT Group's IPO

Alibaba's subsidiary Ant Group, owner of the world's largest digital payments platform, Alipay was due to go public in Shanghai and Hong Kong, which would've been the biggest initial public offering anywhere in the world estimated to be listed at around $34 Billion.

Jack Ma's disappearance

On November 2, 2020, a week after Ma's speech against the Chinese banks and authorities, he was summoned for questioning by the same regulators he had challenged from the stage. Just days later, Ant Group's $34 Billion stock market listing was suspended and for nearly three months, Ma disappeared from the public view.

Jack Ma's spotting overseas

Following the course of these events, Jack Ma was photographed overseas doing normal billionaire things. Traveling around in a golf cart, sailing a yacht, and eating lobster with friends. Reporters tracked him to Tokyo's private clubs, and afterward, he traveled to Thailand, where he was photographed raising his fists alongside a Muay Thai boxing legend.

Theories and Rumours regarding Jack Ma's disappearance

During his disappearance, rumors started to circulate online. There were debates about whether his comments were out of line. Was he placed under house arrest or was an exit ban imposed upon him? It was also probable that Jack Ma had already left the country to avoid arrest, which is partially true and it still isn't confirmed if he were to get arrested did he choose to stay.

Jack Ma's admiration

Ma's admiration went well beyond the normal worship of tycoons and his success was self-made and Not underpinned by family connections. Having received a humble education, his brand was 100% "made in China." and his rise showed what an average person could do. He was nicknamed "Ma Baba" or "Daddy Ma" by the public.

Conspiracies regarding Jack Ma

Jack Ma's fall from grace made a statement of itself from the regulators of the Chinese government that they could, and would, limit his power. Ma is not only a tech icon but also a pioneering figure in the Chinese private enterprise of this century.

Jack Ma's return; but not as a businessman

When on March 27, Jack Ma flew back to China, "Jack Ma has come back" was the top trending topic over social media. When Ma did reappear, it was to go into what many saw as a self-imposed exile. He stopped appearing at conferences and giving talks. For alleged unfair business practices, a record fine of $2.75 billion was also imposed on Chinese tech giant Alibaba. The billionaire accepted an honorary professorship from the business school of the University of Hong Kong, it said on Friday.

The institution’s spokesperson said that it welcomed Ma in sharing "his rich knowledge and experience in business innovation and development".

There we have it folks. In March 2026, Jack Ma's three-year term of professorship will end, and we shall then see what the future holds for the man. I must say, it was one hell of a journey for him, but determination can work wonders!

Abhirup Mishra

--

2