Jack Ma started Alibaba in 1999 and helped grow it into a $420 billion Chinese multinational holding conglomerate specializing in e-commerce, retail, Internet, AI, and technology. He’s one of the most successful business of the time who wants to retire now. He just wants to devote his time to philanthropy in education.
Ma transformed himself from teaching English to becoming the richest man in China. His company is often compared to amazon.com and it began as an online business-to-business marketplace, though it began to grow aggressively with the launch of the direct-to-consumer marketplace Taobao in 2003. His company now has e-commerce, online payment, banking, entertainment, and cloud computing businesses. It also holds stakes in several Chinese media companies, including the microblogging site Weibo, which is a Twitter-like social media platform.
He owns a 6.4 percent stake in the company, giving him a net worth of more than $40 billion. In January 2018, Alibaba became the second Asian company to break the US$500 billion valuation mark, after Tencent. As of 2018, Alibaba has the 9th highest global brand value.
When asked if his retirement could happen as soon as this year, Ma smiled and said, “You’ll know very soon.” It is not yet confirmed about who will be the executive chairman so, he will remain on its board of directors. Ma told the New York Times that he sees his retirement as the beginning on a new chapter.