Jack Ma Resurfaced After Months Of Disappearing, Looking Older And Tired

Dhir Acharya - Jan 21, 2021

The famous billionaire Jack Ma has just resurfaced after months of disappearing while his tech empire is still under scrutiny from Chinese regulators.

On Wednesday, the co-founder of Alibaba made his first appearance in a video released by Chinese state media. It can be seen that he was speaking to teachers during a philanthropic event. The video of Jack Ma was released by Tianmu News, a subsidiary of the official newspaper of the Zhejiang government. This province comprises Hangzhou where Alibaba is headquartered.

Jack Ma had disappeared since late October, about a week before Ant Group, Alibaba’s financial affiliate, was scheduled to list on Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges. Chinese regulators blocked the stock at the last minute while his company has since been targeted in a growing crackdown on tech by Beijing.

After the video was released, Alibaba’s shares listed in Hong Kong rose by 8.5 percent, the highest price since July last year. This helped make up for some losses piling up since the IPO was pulled. Meanwhile, Alibaba’s stock in New York went up by 5.5 percent.

According to the Jack Ma Foundation, the billionaire joined an online award ceremony for teachers called the Rural Teacher Initiative on Wednesday.

In the video, Ma is seen telling teachers that the in-person celebration had been canceled due to COVID-19. The video also includes footage of Ma visiting an elementary school earlier this month.

Over the past few weeks, a lot of people have questioned the whereabouts of Ma. While Ant Group was in preparation for the largest initial public offering last year, Ma accused authorities of blocking innovation. He was quickly summoned to a meeting and the IPO was shelved.