Chinese billionaire and Alibaba founder Jack Ma mysteriously disappeared: Nothing has been heard from him for more than two months, and he was not even present for the final chapter of his own Africa’s Business Heroes show.
Africa’s Business Heroes is a talent show in which different African entrepreneurs compete for a share of a total of $ 1.5 million. Jack Ma was supposed to serve on the jury as usual but was replaced in the last episode in November 2020 by another Alibaba executive.
The weirdest thing about all this is that his disappearance occurred after a series of controversies in which the Chinese tycoon was involved with the government of his country:
- On October 24, 2020, Jack Ma criticized China’s regulatory system for stifling innovation and expressed his desire to reform the current system.
- A week later, the IPO of Jack Ma’s company, Ant Group, valued at $ 37 billion, was suspended.
- Since then, Ma has not been seen in public. In fact, his last tweet dates from October 10, 2020.
- In December last year, Chinese authorities launched an antitrust investigation into Alibaba and told Ant Group to restructure its operations.
The only thing that was communicated from Alibaba was that “Due to a scheduling conflict, Mr. Ma could not be part of the final jury of Africa’s Business Heroes.”
