Alibaba founder Jack Ma is believed to have been hiding in Tokyo, Japan, with his family amid crackdown on major tech companies in China, according to the Financial Times.
Ma, who until recently was the richest man in China, criticised the tendency of Chinese regulators and accused them of stifling innovation, has since been rarely seen in public.
Mark Sweney report that: “Aside from a 48-second online appearance early last year, described by one analyst as akin to a “hostage video”, a brief trip to the Netherlands and Ma’s 88-metre superyacht Zen being spotted last summer docking off the Spanish island of Mallorca, the 58-year-old has maintained a low profile living outside his native China.”
For nearly six months, Financial Times says, “the former English teacher turned tech superstar has been living in Tokyo with his family.”
Ma’s net worth, The Kenya Times understands, has reduced by more than half from almost $50bn to $21.7bn (£18bn) as regulators “have targeted actions against his immense Chinese tech empire.”
Multiple reports suggest that Chinese regulators have “blocked the $34bn stock market flotation of the Alibaba online payments subsidiary Ant Group, which would have been the biggest share offering in history.”
Additionally, Sweney writes, Beijing ordered Alibaba to “sell off some of its media assets, which include Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post.” Chinese state would later fine Alibaba a record $2.8bn for anti-competitive practices.