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By IANS 
4h ago
Beijing – Tech billionaire and Alibaba founder Jack Ma has “disappeared” from public life and has not been seen for at least two months.
The Financial Times reported that Ma was recently replaced as a judge in the finale of the TV show ‘Africa’s Business Heroes’.
“His photograph was removed from the judges’ website, and was conspicuously left out of a promotional video,” the report stated.
The final took place in November, shortly after Ma gave a speech related to financial systems and regulation.
“Ma’s $ 37 billion initial public offering of his company Ant Group was suspended. He has not been seen in public since,” the report says.
An Alibaba spokesperson was quoted as saying that “due to a scheduling conflict, Mr. Ma could no longer be part of the final judging panel for Africa’s Business Heroes earlier this year (2020).”
Last month, when China’s main market watchdog began investigating e-commerce giant Alibaba’s alleged anti-competitive practices, the country also submitted a “rectification plan” for Ma Ant Group’s fintech company.
According to a report in TechCrunch, the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, “convened Ant Group for regulatory talks on December 26, announcing a broad plan for the fintech firm to ‘rectify’ its regulatory violations.”
The banking authority set a five-point compliance agenda for Ant Group.
The agenda is that Ant Group should go back to its roots in payments and bring more transparency to transactions.
Ant Group said it has established an internal “rectification workforce” to work on all regulatory requirements.
The Xinhua News Agency first reported that the People’s Bank of China, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange “will interview Ant Group in the near future.”
The State Administration for Market Regulation launched an investigation into the alleged anti-competitive practices of e-commerce giant Alibaba, when Beijing tightened control of a sprawling Internet.
In a short note, the State Administration for Market Regulation said it is investigating Alibaba for its “pick one between two” policy.
As part of this policy, merchants are forced to sell exclusively on Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms and avoid rivals like JD.com.
Alibaba Group said in a statement that they have received a notification from the State Administration for Market Regulation.
–IANS
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