The Speech That Cost Jack Ma 37$ Billion

When Alibaba was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014, it set a record as the world’s biggest public stock offering, raising $25 billion.
No doubt when you think of e-commerce, you think of Amazon but compare these figures from 2020:
On Singles Day (November 11), Alibaba recorded $77 billion in sales. That was 21 times as many orders by value as Amazon.com’s two-day global Prime Day a few weeks prior.
In November 2020, Jack’s fintech firm, Ant Group, an online finance platform that grew out of Alipay, was due to list on the stock market in a world-record $37 billion deal that would value the company at more than $300 billion.

Looking at what Jack said
On October 24 at the Bund Summit in Shanghai, Jack gave his now (in)famous speech. He commenced by saying he was torn about what he was about to say but felt that it was critical for financial development in China. For the next twenty minutes, he launched into a not so subtle attack of the Chinese government.
In the speech, Ma criticized “outdated supervision” of financial regulation for stifling innovation and said its global banking rules were like an “old people’s club.” He called for urgent change and said that Chinese banks had a “pawnshop mentality (that) is severe, and it also affects many entrepreneurs.” Ma called the people who run the banks “old men” and inferred they were out of touch.
He went on to call out the government’s interference in businesses and their potential growth, saying, “the game in the future is about innovation, not just regulatory skills.” Ma concluded by stating that China does not have sufficient experts to make policies that align with development.
Ma has been the poster boy for Chinese technology and finance. The man who brought China to the forefront of e-commerce. In the past, he has been outspoken and is known for his controversial speeches, but this time it appeared he had finally crossed the line.
The Chinese government is not well known for tolerating criticism. Websites are censored, communications monitored. President Xi Jinping doesn’t like to be challenged. Communist party officials retaliated quickly by targeting Ma’s financial empire. It was a demonstration that no individual (no matter how rich) is more important than the Communist Party.
“The [Communist] Party is trying to make it clear that Ma is not bigger than the party,” says Rana Mitter, a professor specializing in Chinese politics at Oxford University

The fallout
A week after the speech, Ma met with China’s top regulators. Following the meeting, officials published a draft of new stricter rules for online micro-lending companies like Ant Group. On November 3, the Shanghai Stock Exchange canceled the Ant Group IPO citing “significant change” in the regulatory environment. This was a huge blow to Ma, his company, and his personal finances — shares in Alibaba, which owns part of Ant, fell more than 8%, shaving $3bn off Ma’s net worth.
The Ant Group was ordered to overhaul its financial business, and an antitrust probe was launched into Alibaba Group Holding.
It also triggered Ma’s removal from the public eye. He failed to appear in the final episode of his own talent show, ‘Africa’s Business Heroes,’ which gives budding African entrepreneurs the chance to compete for a US $1.5 million prize. He was removed from the show’s website as well as all promotional videos.
He stopped posting on Twitter, where his 612,000 followers haven’t heard from him since October 12. Ma also didn’t show at the Shanghai Zhejiang chamber of commerce meeting, a forum where he has delivered a speech every year since 2016.
In short, since giving the speech, China’s richest man and the face of ‘China Inc’ has not been seen. There have been rumors authorities have detained him. People point to the case of Fan Bingbing, China’s most famous actress who was arrested for tax evasion and disappeared for months. She later appeared in a public apology expressing her loyalty to the Communist Party.
There were also fears that he may befall the same fate as former chairman and key shareholder of the Anbang Insurance Group, Wu Xiaohui. In 2018, WU was arrested for economic crimes and sentenced to eighteen years in jail.

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markomakovec (30) · 4 years ago (edited)

I didn't know that even happened I will check out his speech now... are there any news what is happening now or anything about his whereabouts? You think he will share the same faith as others?
And China should stop pretending that its peoples republic its a classical tyranny with this one party system and people aren't other than slaves to the regime!

UPDATE: I found the whole speech in ENGLISH https://interconnected.blog/jack-ma-bund-finance-summit-speech/

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