That interference escalated into a massive regulatory crackdown, with the government portraying the technology sector as a force to be contained for the good of society.
Nearly every top tech company has had to make corrections, and Alibaba was no exception. Ride-hailing group Didi was investigated and voluntarily delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. Online marketplace Tmall was fined for irregular pricing. Ma’s Ant Group has been restructured, with its consumer finance division regulated as a financial institution.
Top officials have reassured the industry that the government’s crackdown is, if not over, then winding down. Didi was allowed back into app stores. The economy is starting to pick up. But the prevailing sentiment is still uncertainty. “Trust in technology companies has plummeted,” Zhao says. “It will take a long time for the market to regain confidence.”
Ma’s return was heralded by some as a sign of rapprochement between Big Tech and the government, though Ma no longer controls Ant Group.
There is a rumor in the tech industry that Ma has been invited by Premier Li Qiang to come back to China. Li, who has held senior positions across the country, most recently in Shanghai’s financial hub, has built a reputation as a proponent of private affairs. Under his leadership, Tesla became the first foreign automaker to fully own its Chinese plant and launched the Shanghai version of Nasdaq, giving tech companies greater access to capital. Since becoming prime minister, Li has traveled the country to discuss advanced manufacturing and nuclear technologies, and has met with foreign delegations to discuss international investment. The message seems to be that China is not as opposed to private enterprise as previously thought.
It’s not clear whether Ma’s rehabilitation – if this is it – was intended to support that message. On the day he arrived, shares of Alibaba rose 5.5 percent (although they soon fell back). The next day, Alibaba announced plans to split into six units, each capable of raising external financing and going public. The stock closed 14.3 percent higher after the news.
With industry-wide uncertainty still looming, the technology sector may need more than token gestures to get investment back on track. “There needs to be aggressive institutional measures to reassure companies that their working environment will be good,” said Chim Lee, an analyst with the Economist Intelligence Unit. “It will take more than Jack Ma to come back to restore confidence.”
In fact, Ma came back not as an entrepreneur, but as a teacher. He has returned to who he was before he founded Alibaba (in the corporate offices, employees called him Teacher Ma). He has accepted an honorary professorship at Hong Kong University, although he will only conduct research in that role, in addition to accepting visiting professorships at universities in Japan, Rwanda and Israel. His first public stop in China was at the school he founded in Hangzhou. Dressed in casual clothes and Allbirds shoes, he spoke about the challenges AI poses to education. ChatGPT was just the beginning of the AI era, he said.
While Ma is still a huge figure in technology, people have moved on. With Ma out of the public eye, they’re now sticking to the words of entrepreneurs like Xiaomi’s Lei Jun and Qihoo 360’s Zhou Hongyi. The news is being captured less by Web 2.0 companies and more by those developing AI and EVs. People are watching Baidu’s attempt to compete with Chat GPT.
At a time when government is once again central to the economy, the conversation around private enterprise is no longer about one number. “The era in which these types of tech entrepreneurs were seen as the driving force behind the Chinese economy is over,” says Lee. Ma’s quote was correct. Success is not his.
