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Jack Ma to Retire from Alibaba

401 points by tysone 8y ago

comboy 8y ago
It ain't working that bad so far. I mean we have increasing gap, but the 0.0001%, which arguably is pretty smart, is in the end using both their wealth and wisdom to try to selflessly make the world a better place. I just checked the numbers and indeed, relative amount of money spend on philanthropy seems to be increasing[1][2], I couldn't find any global numbers though. 1. https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=42 https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&... 2. https://www.nptrust.org/philanthropic-resources/charitable-giving-statistics/ https://www.nptrust.org/philanthropic-resources/charitable-g...
- lovich 8y ago
  A Chinese company is probably a bad example since their real wages have been increasing, but do you think relative charity might be increasing because the rich keep getting richer and the poor poorer? More people need help and the rich feel the pain less.
  - comboy 8y ago
    Just to be super clear, I don't think that the increasing gap is a good thing. I was just commenting on the fact that surprisingly many super rich people decide to go into philanthropy instead of letting their wealth dissolve within their families. Buffet had a nice, pretty old article about why leaving huge loads of money to your children is a bad idea but I can't find it at the moment.
    - sokoloff 8y ago
      http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1986/09/29/68098/index.htm http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive... Summary quote: Buffett is not cutting his children out of his fortune because they are wastrels or wantons or refuse to go into the family business -- the traditional reasons rich parents withhold money. Says he: ''My kids are going , to carve out their own place in this world, and they know I'm for them whatever they want to do.'' But he believes that setting up his heirs with ''a lifetime supply of food stamps just because they came out of the right womb'' can be ''harmful'' for them and is ''an antisocial act.'' To him the perfect amount to leave children is ''enough money so that they would feel they could do anything, but not so much that they could do nothing.'' For a college graduate, Buffett reckons ''a few hundred thousand dollars'' sounds about right. That’s in 1986, so the equivalent figure is more like a million bucks and change today.
    - opportune 8y ago
      Philanthropy is in many cases personal PR for the rich, or just something easy to do rather than work or do nothing. I’m sure Buffett and Gates are doing it for other reasons. But generic_billionaire donating paltry amounts of money is just buying goodwill from the public, other rich people, the local community, politicians, etc. A rich person donating 1% of their wealth each year may be donating a lot in absolute terms but very little relative to what they have
      - analognoise 8y ago
        They're still donating. Are we seriously chastising people for giving money to causes of their own volition because we feel it isn't enough?
        icelancer 8y ago
        Yes, this is basically where we are at today. Apparently we are to hold every rich person to some esoteric standard because every wealthy person made their money by exploiting others; none of them were positive-sum contributors to society. And when someone donates a lot of money, we just say they are buying PR and have calculated the ROI like the terrible capitalist they are, with zero evidence at all this is the case.
        lovich 8y ago
        If it's a straight donation maybe it's PRless. The number of people like Trump's or Zuckerberg's who donate to family foundations that give them tax breaks and give them a way to funnel money to their family through jobs that are paid by the foundations, has seriously degraded trust in the concept of charities as organizations. It's like running a company nowadays and wondering why your employees have no loyalty. Yea, maybe you're the one group that has acted honorably, but 90% of your peers have been rat bastards and you can't be surprised if the average person assumes you are too
        icelancer 8y ago
        Showing loyalty for the sake of loyalty as a worker has nothing to do with honor. It's... stupid. I do not expect my employees to show loyalty to me because they should. I expect them to remain employed with me because it is their best option, and I compete for their labor business with the other employers in the pool.
    - aylmao 8y ago
      Considering that the gap also means increasing disdain against the rich, I'm not that surprised. Not saying it's all just PR and getting on the good side of the mob, but it's still true that before being revered for his philanthropy, Bill Gates was one of the most hated people in tech.
      - throwaway080383 8y ago
        Among other tech people, right? Was he ever hated by random people in South Dakota?
  - maxerickson 8y ago
    The gap is increasing but the poor are overwhelmingly getting richer, not poorer. I'm talking about in real terms, standard of living has gone up across the world for decades, even as the population has grown.
    - aylmao 8y ago
      But considering the gap, it could be better. This is like the tax-cuts-- "Oh, you should be happy you're getting a few hundred dollars back!". Well yeah, but if the cuts had been made fairly across income brackets, I'd be getting thousands.
    - lovich 8y ago
      It's gone up in the developing world. It hasn't gone up in the US. Infrastructure that the common man relied on is crumbling or is just gone, ie Flint water, and the rich are just importing everything they need to themselves
      - maxerickson 8y ago
        Portions of the US are worse off. It's still easily the case that the standard of living has increased for most people.
        lovich 8y ago
        Does the average American born after 1990 have more house or a better retirement plan than their parents? There's luxuries like smartphones that have increased but the basics have been slipping out of more and more people's hands
        JumpCrisscross 8y ago
        > Does the average American born after 1990 have more house or a better retirement plan than their parents? No, but their parents had longer to save. The average person born in 1990 has a higher average real wage than their parents did. Given the novelty of college debt, it’s difficult to say much more, but mean statistics point to a wealthier American population at all levels today than any time before. The issue is the rich have gotten richer faster, not that the poor are getting poorer.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
baybal2 8y ago
>Among China’s biggest companies, Alibaba is viewed as one of the firms with the deepest ranks of management talent. Claim going perpendicular to experience of every Alibaba employee I met. A person who was singlehandedly running both business development and operations for all of Aliexpress has left the company after 5 years without a promotion. The co has a reputation for squeezing work enthusiasm out from even most spirited people around.
- fipple 8y ago
  It’s not at all unusual for senior execs to rarely get promoted, since there are so few roles to promote them into. Look how long Sheryl Sandberg has and will be COO of Facebook.
  - baybal2 8y ago
    The thing is, the guy was a no name "overseas business development manager" for all 5 years. He was one of first foreigners in the company.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - PakG1 8y ago
      I don't ask this flippantly. Is it possible that he simply wasn't as good as he thought he was? In situations like this, I often find the company culture can suck, but I also often find that people overrate themselves and aren't willing to develop. I'd say my observations are about half-half.
      - baybal2 8y ago
        Given what a business Aliexpress became under his watch, nobody will challenge his contribution
        mwfunk 8y ago
dqpb 8y ago
I hope he's able to make a positive impact on education!
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- iKevinShah 8y ago
  with the intensity he speaks and the clarity he has in what he speaks and given the fact he was a teacher, I fully expect him to actually make a positive impact
  - specialist 8y ago
    I wish all geeks who want to reform (save) education also had Ma's classroom experience. It's easy to tell other people how to do their jobs. Hard to actually do the job.
    - ethbro 8y ago
      If I had one grain of wisdom I could impart to most geeks, it would be to impart the value of truly watching and listening. That thing you're building? Find someone who's really good at the current way it's done. Sit and watch them. Don't talk, just observe and understand. After you've sat silently for awhile, then ask any questions you have. Your product will be immeasurably better in at least one way.
- dmix 8y ago
  Who knows maybe he'll help accelerate the bankruptcy of colleges [1] with backwards business models, ruined by extremely top heavy administration-first hierarchies pushing tuitions higher. And redirect the cheap capital going to end super expensive degrees with no market to more cost effective models that reflect market-demand (which apparently is not factored into the marketing of university courses to youth).
  - larkeith 8y ago
drum 8y ago
The brewing trade war can't make running the company easy for Ma, considering Alibaba does more volume than eBay and Amazon combined as a portal to Chinese manufacturers. Taking into account that the company's listed on a US stock exchange yet still has to answer to government regulation back in China, I can't imagine he's having a good time being caught in the middle.
- rgbrenner 8y ago
  They'll be ok, even with the trade war. The majority (about 90%) of Alibaba's sales are domestic (Chinese). The rest is exports (not just to the US though): https://www.statista.com/statistics/226793/e-commerce-revenue-of-alibabacom/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/226793/e-commerce-revenu... And read this if you want to get an idea of where their revenue comes from: https://www.nasdaq.com/article/alibaba-baba-misses-q1-earnings-estimates-beats-revenues-cm1012568 https://www.nasdaq.com/article/alibaba-baba-misses-q1-earnin...
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - crystalmeph 8y ago
    >The majority (about 90%) of Alibaba's sales are domestic (Chinese) But how many of those domestic customers get their own paycheck from exports? China is moving towards a more domestic-focused economy, but exports are still a big deal for them.
    - PakG1 8y ago
      Did you try reading the above linked NASDAQ link? Total overall revenues: Alibaba reported revenues of RMB80.9 billion (US$12.23 billion), up 61% from the prior-year quarter. Also, revenues came in slightly above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of US$12.25 billion. Total revenues related to selling exports: · International commerce retail business (6% of the total revenues) - Revenues in the quarter were RMB4.3 billion (US$652 million), increasing 64% year over year. The increase was driven by robust GMV growth in two marketplaces, namely Lazada and AliExpress. · International commerce wholesale business (2% of the total revenues) - This business generated revenues of RMB1.8 billion (US$278 million), increasing 14% from the prior-year quarter. The growth was due to an increase in the number of paying members on alibaba.com platform. So a total of 8% of total revenues were due to selling exports. Plus, it's not clear how much of that revenue is from Lazada, which is not subject to US tariffs because its target market is Southeast Asia. If anything, everyone is suffering from US tariffs, so Lazada can only grow because it's a trade relationship that doesn't depend on the US.
bluetwo 8y ago
Odds of a financial scandal in the next year?
- bb2018 8y ago
  That was my instinct too.
- jonknee 8y ago
  He was the chairman, not a day to day guy who would know about such things.
- dmix 8y ago
  Unlikely? > As Alibaba has flourished, Mr. Ma has talked many times about how he did not want to spend his whole life at the company, saying he would retire one day and go back to teaching.
- eip 8y ago
  "You couldn't successfully audit a good sized publicly held, domestic US Car Dealership for the fees that PWC Hong Kong charges to audit a global enterprise like Alibaba" "I have no idea how PWC can audit this mess for the fees they charge. Every year, the hours of work required expand geometrically and the fees come in at about what you'd charge to audit a large US/Domestic publicly traded Car Dealership. Keep this in mind, Alibaba now has 920 Operating Units (Did I mention that?) scattered all over the globe, a massive Capital Structure "Enhancement", with many of these WFOE's and VIE's located in the PRC and all of these entities are audited from the PWC Hong Kong office. If I were trying to audit this we'd have substantial travel, staff time and training on both IFRS and GAAP accounting treatment and methods. All to be researched and applied to myriad business combinations, sales, mergers and divestitures. Incredibly, PWC Hong Kong does the whole thing, including tax services and consulting for US$12.8 million dollars ($13,900 per business unit @ US$12.8 million/920), up from US$ 8.4 Million the prior year. PWC is the the new "Dollar Store" of public accounting." https://deep-throat-ipo.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-baba-20-ffinancial-comedy-gold.html https://deep-throat-ipo.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-baba-20-ffi...
- tvanantwerp 8y ago
joejerryronnie 8y ago
The reason Jack Ma is stepping down from Alibaba is that he was becoming too powerful and influencial in China. Jack is very smart and knows that you can build your wealth and power until you begin to threaten the party, then you either need to step down or you will be forcefully taken down.
- ck425 8y ago
  Interesting thought. Can you provide any historical examples of this?
  - throwawayperson 8y ago
    Wang Jianlin, Xiao Jianhua
  - adventured 8y ago
    You can look at his existing behavior for clues to that being the case. When he took control of Ant Financial from Alibaba, spinning it off, he gave himself 2/3 of the business. That diluted position would still be worth around $80-$90 billion today. Instead of holding onto that, he proceeded to massively dilute his ownership and control of Ant. The reason he did that, is the same reason he was allowed to take it away from Alibaba without proper compensation (Alibaba was majority owned by multiple foreign shareholders): strategic national interest, an edict from the government. The major banks are all directly state controlled. A very large share of all online transactions in China flow through Ant Financial, the government couldn't allow that to remain in one person's hands. Jack got his orders. In China as a business person it's extremely dangerous to become too powerful or rich, especially now. Maybe you could have gotten away with it 15 years ago. China of today is very different from China of the late 1990s and 2000s. If Jack Ma had held onto his original contrived Ant position, he'd nearly be the richest person on earth, with a potential chokehold on finance, industry and retail in China. That position could have plausibly been worth several hundred billion dollars to him personally over time. That's not something you want to aspire to currently in China.
    - baybal2 8y ago
eip 8y ago
Enron 2019 confirmed.
daodedickinson 8y ago
Didn't think Musk would outlast him.
bitL 8y ago
Retire or get offed... Easy choice. I am wondering how many years has China left, unconstrained kleptocracy can't last more than a few decades.
mv4 8y ago
"When you are 50 to 60 years old, spend time training and developing young people, the next generation," Ma added. "When you are over 60 years old, you better stay with your grandchildren." https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/30/jack-ma-dont-fear-making-mistakes-in-your-20s-and-30s.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/30/jack-ma-dont-fear-making-mis...
- libertine 8y ago
  I actually believe this - he is fulfilling his vision of the stages in life. Sometimes there are no smokes and mirrors.
  - flippyhead 8y ago
    I do too, but also, just wait; he may get bored.
  - eip 8y ago
    >Sometimes there are no smokes and mirrors. This is hilariously ironic considering Alibaba is almost 100% smoke and mirrors.
    - fegul 8y ago
      How so?
      - akaij 8y ago
        I think they are referring to Alibaba (allegedly) being a front for the Chinese Communist Party to launder money.
        eip 8y ago
        "Hey, from the latest 20-F (page 118) we know that you've created about 600 new legal entities over the last two years under your "Enhancement" program, getting more friends, family and political cronies involved in the dilution of the Capital Structure. So, I guess my question is "how long is this bullshit going to go on?"" https://deep-throat-ipo.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-calland-open-letter-to-securities.html https://deep-throat-ipo.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-calland-ope...
vincvinc 8y ago
> An Alibaba spokesman said Ma remains the company’s executive chairman and will provide transition plans over a significant period of time, contrary to a New York Times article that said he was “stepping down” to “retire.” The Times story was taken out of context, and factually wrong, the spokesman said. https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2163376/jack-ma-remain-alibabas-chairman-succession-plan-younger-talent https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2163376/jack...
- leesalminen 8y ago
  Does it surprise you that The NY Times took something out of context and provided factually false info?
  - malcolmgreaves 8y ago
    Yes, it does.
  - ProfBernardo 8y ago
    Nope, definitely not surprised.
  - jlavine 8y ago
    It's their bread and butter. Sticking to the truth is tedious and gets fewer clicks than tabloid-style soap opera, so why bother?
  - qubax 8y ago
    Not in the least. But they are the preferred "news" provider here and get spammed 24/7.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- CitizenTekk 8y ago
  Retiring or not, he still is one of the riches man on the ASIA and will spend many years spending what he earned and that folks is a stone cold fact. So much for retirement money huh?
murali89 8y ago
Fake News
Mikho 8y ago
Jack Ma will be able to get more stuff done not being burdened by the Alibaba leader position. I guess it's just politics for his hands not to be tied and he could make bigger changes in China.
wanghq 8y ago
> Ma will remain executive chairman while the plan is carried out. A New York Times report that said he was “stepping down” to “retire” was out of context, and factually wrong, an Alibaba spokesman said https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2163376/jack-ma-remain-alibabas-chairman-succession-plan-younger-talent https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2163376/jack...

401 points by tysone 8y ago

It ain't working that bad so far. I mean we have increasing gap, but the 0.0001%, which arguably is pretty smart, is in the end using both their wealth and wisdom to try to selflessly make the world a better place. I just checked the numbers and indeed, relative amount of money spend on philanthropy seems to be increasing[1][2], I couldn't find any global numbers though. 1. https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=42 https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&... 2. https://www.nptrust.org/philanthropic-resources/charitable-giving-statistics/ https://www.nptrust.org/philanthropic-resources/charitable-g...

lovich 8y ago
A Chinese company is probably a bad example since their real wages have been increasing, but do you think relative charity might be increasing because the rich keep getting richer and the poor poorer? More people need help and the rich feel the pain less.
- comboy 8y ago
  Just to be super clear, I don't think that the increasing gap is a good thing. I was just commenting on the fact that surprisingly many super rich people decide to go into philanthropy instead of letting their wealth dissolve within their families. Buffet had a nice, pretty old article about why leaving huge loads of money to your children is a bad idea but I can't find it at the moment.
  - sokoloff 8y ago
    http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1986/09/29/68098/index.htm http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive... Summary quote: Buffett is not cutting his children out of his fortune because they are wastrels or wantons or refuse to go into the family business -- the traditional reasons rich parents withhold money. Says he: ''My kids are going , to carve out their own place in this world, and they know I'm for them whatever they want to do.'' But he believes that setting up his heirs with ''a lifetime supply of food stamps just because they came out of the right womb'' can be ''harmful'' for them and is ''an antisocial act.'' To him the perfect amount to leave children is ''enough money so that they would feel they could do anything, but not so much that they could do nothing.'' For a college graduate, Buffett reckons ''a few hundred thousand dollars'' sounds about right. That’s in 1986, so the equivalent figure is more like a million bucks and change today.
  - opportune 8y ago
    Philanthropy is in many cases personal PR for the rich, or just something easy to do rather than work or do nothing. I’m sure Buffett and Gates are doing it for other reasons. But generic_billionaire donating paltry amounts of money is just buying goodwill from the public, other rich people, the local community, politicians, etc. A rich person donating 1% of their wealth each year may be donating a lot in absolute terms but very little relative to what they have
    - analognoise 8y ago
      They're still donating. Are we seriously chastising people for giving money to causes of their own volition because we feel it isn't enough?
      - icelancer 8y ago
        Yes, this is basically where we are at today. Apparently we are to hold every rich person to some esoteric standard because every wealthy person made their money by exploiting others; none of them were positive-sum contributors to society. And when someone donates a lot of money, we just say they are buying PR and have calculated the ROI like the terrible capitalist they are, with zero evidence at all this is the case.
        lovich 8y ago
        If it's a straight donation maybe it's PRless. The number of people like Trump's or Zuckerberg's who donate to family foundations that give them tax breaks and give them a way to funnel money to their family through jobs that are paid by the foundations, has seriously degraded trust in the concept of charities as organizations. It's like running a company nowadays and wondering why your employees have no loyalty. Yea, maybe you're the one group that has acted honorably, but 90% of your peers have been rat bastards and you can't be surprised if the average person assumes you are too
        icelancer 8y ago
        Showing loyalty for the sake of loyalty as a worker has nothing to do with honor. It's... stupid. I do not expect my employees to show loyalty to me because they should. I expect them to remain employed with me because it is their best option, and I compete for their labor business with the other employers in the pool.
  - aylmao 8y ago
    Considering that the gap also means increasing disdain against the rich, I'm not that surprised. Not saying it's all just PR and getting on the good side of the mob, but it's still true that before being revered for his philanthropy, Bill Gates was one of the most hated people in tech.
    - throwaway080383 8y ago
      Among other tech people, right? Was he ever hated by random people in South Dakota?
- maxerickson 8y ago
  The gap is increasing but the poor are overwhelmingly getting richer, not poorer. I'm talking about in real terms, standard of living has gone up across the world for decades, even as the population has grown.
  - aylmao 8y ago
    But considering the gap, it could be better. This is like the tax-cuts-- "Oh, you should be happy you're getting a few hundred dollars back!". Well yeah, but if the cuts had been made fairly across income brackets, I'd be getting thousands.
  - lovich 8y ago
    It's gone up in the developing world. It hasn't gone up in the US. Infrastructure that the common man relied on is crumbling or is just gone, ie Flint water, and the rich are just importing everything they need to themselves
    - maxerickson 8y ago
      Portions of the US are worse off. It's still easily the case that the standard of living has increased for most people.
      - lovich 8y ago
        Does the average American born after 1990 have more house or a better retirement plan than their parents? There's luxuries like smartphones that have increased but the basics have been slipping out of more and more people's hands
        JumpCrisscross 8y ago
        > Does the average American born after 1990 have more house or a better retirement plan than their parents? No, but their parents had longer to save. The average person born in 1990 has a higher average real wage than their parents did. Given the novelty of college debt, it’s difficult to say much more, but mean statistics point to a wealthier American population at all levels today than any time before. The issue is the rich have gotten richer faster, not that the poor are getting poorer.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

baybal2 8y ago

>Among China’s biggest companies, Alibaba is viewed as one of the firms with the deepest ranks of management talent. Claim going perpendicular to experience of every Alibaba employee I met. A person who was singlehandedly running both business development and operations for all of Aliexpress has left the company after 5 years without a promotion. The co has a reputation for squeezing work enthusiasm out from even most spirited people around.

fipple 8y ago
It’s not at all unusual for senior execs to rarely get promoted, since there are so few roles to promote them into. Look how long Sheryl Sandberg has and will be COO of Facebook.
- baybal2 8y ago
  The thing is, the guy was a no name "overseas business development manager" for all 5 years. He was one of first foreigners in the company.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - PakG1 8y ago
    I don't ask this flippantly. Is it possible that he simply wasn't as good as he thought he was? In situations like this, I often find the company culture can suck, but I also often find that people overrate themselves and aren't willing to develop. I'd say my observations are about half-half.
    - baybal2 8y ago
      Given what a business Aliexpress became under his watch, nobody will challenge his contribution
      - mwfunk 8y ago

dqpb 8y ago

I hope he's able to make a positive impact on education!

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
iKevinShah 8y ago
with the intensity he speaks and the clarity he has in what he speaks and given the fact he was a teacher, I fully expect him to actually make a positive impact
- specialist 8y ago
  I wish all geeks who want to reform (save) education also had Ma's classroom experience. It's easy to tell other people how to do their jobs. Hard to actually do the job.
  - ethbro 8y ago
    If I had one grain of wisdom I could impart to most geeks, it would be to impart the value of truly watching and listening. That thing you're building? Find someone who's really good at the current way it's done. Sit and watch them. Don't talk, just observe and understand. After you've sat silently for awhile, then ask any questions you have. Your product will be immeasurably better in at least one way.
dmix 8y ago
Who knows maybe he'll help accelerate the bankruptcy of colleges [1] with backwards business models, ruined by extremely top heavy administration-first hierarchies pushing tuitions higher. And redirect the cheap capital going to end super expensive degrees with no market to more cost effective models that reflect market-demand (which apparently is not factored into the marketing of university courses to youth).
- larkeith 8y ago

drum 8y ago

The brewing trade war can't make running the company easy for Ma, considering Alibaba does more volume than eBay and Amazon combined as a portal to Chinese manufacturers. Taking into account that the company's listed on a US stock exchange yet still has to answer to government regulation back in China, I can't imagine he's having a good time being caught in the middle.

rgbrenner 8y ago
They'll be ok, even with the trade war. The majority (about 90%) of Alibaba's sales are domestic (Chinese). The rest is exports (not just to the US though): https://www.statista.com/statistics/226793/e-commerce-revenue-of-alibabacom/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/226793/e-commerce-revenu... And read this if you want to get an idea of where their revenue comes from: https://www.nasdaq.com/article/alibaba-baba-misses-q1-earnings-estimates-beats-revenues-cm1012568 https://www.nasdaq.com/article/alibaba-baba-misses-q1-earnin...
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- crystalmeph 8y ago
  >The majority (about 90%) of Alibaba's sales are domestic (Chinese) But how many of those domestic customers get their own paycheck from exports? China is moving towards a more domestic-focused economy, but exports are still a big deal for them.
  - PakG1 8y ago
    Did you try reading the above linked NASDAQ link? Total overall revenues: Alibaba reported revenues of RMB80.9 billion (US$12.23 billion), up 61% from the prior-year quarter. Also, revenues came in slightly above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of US$12.25 billion. Total revenues related to selling exports: · International commerce retail business (6% of the total revenues) - Revenues in the quarter were RMB4.3 billion (US$652 million), increasing 64% year over year. The increase was driven by robust GMV growth in two marketplaces, namely Lazada and AliExpress. · International commerce wholesale business (2% of the total revenues) - This business generated revenues of RMB1.8 billion (US$278 million), increasing 14% from the prior-year quarter. The growth was due to an increase in the number of paying members on alibaba.com platform. So a total of 8% of total revenues were due to selling exports. Plus, it's not clear how much of that revenue is from Lazada, which is not subject to US tariffs because its target market is Southeast Asia. If anything, everyone is suffering from US tariffs, so Lazada can only grow because it's a trade relationship that doesn't depend on the US.

bluetwo 8y ago

Odds of a financial scandal in the next year?

bb2018 8y ago
That was my instinct too.
jonknee 8y ago
He was the chairman, not a day to day guy who would know about such things.
dmix 8y ago
Unlikely? > As Alibaba has flourished, Mr. Ma has talked many times about how he did not want to spend his whole life at the company, saying he would retire one day and go back to teaching.
eip 8y ago
"You couldn't successfully audit a good sized publicly held, domestic US Car Dealership for the fees that PWC Hong Kong charges to audit a global enterprise like Alibaba" "I have no idea how PWC can audit this mess for the fees they charge. Every year, the hours of work required expand geometrically and the fees come in at about what you'd charge to audit a large US/Domestic publicly traded Car Dealership. Keep this in mind, Alibaba now has 920 Operating Units (Did I mention that?) scattered all over the globe, a massive Capital Structure "Enhancement", with many of these WFOE's and VIE's located in the PRC and all of these entities are audited from the PWC Hong Kong office. If I were trying to audit this we'd have substantial travel, staff time and training on both IFRS and GAAP accounting treatment and methods. All to be researched and applied to myriad business combinations, sales, mergers and divestitures. Incredibly, PWC Hong Kong does the whole thing, including tax services and consulting for US$12.8 million dollars ($13,900 per business unit @ US$12.8 million/920), up from US$ 8.4 Million the prior year. PWC is the the new "Dollar Store" of public accounting." https://deep-throat-ipo.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-baba-20-ffinancial-comedy-gold.html https://deep-throat-ipo.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-baba-20-ffi...
tvanantwerp 8y ago

joejerryronnie 8y ago

The reason Jack Ma is stepping down from Alibaba is that he was becoming too powerful and influencial in China. Jack is very smart and knows that you can build your wealth and power until you begin to threaten the party, then you either need to step down or you will be forcefully taken down.

ck425 8y ago
Interesting thought. Can you provide any historical examples of this?
- throwawayperson 8y ago
  Wang Jianlin, Xiao Jianhua
- adventured 8y ago
  You can look at his existing behavior for clues to that being the case. When he took control of Ant Financial from Alibaba, spinning it off, he gave himself 2/3 of the business. That diluted position would still be worth around $80-$90 billion today. Instead of holding onto that, he proceeded to massively dilute his ownership and control of Ant. The reason he did that, is the same reason he was allowed to take it away from Alibaba without proper compensation (Alibaba was majority owned by multiple foreign shareholders): strategic national interest, an edict from the government. The major banks are all directly state controlled. A very large share of all online transactions in China flow through Ant Financial, the government couldn't allow that to remain in one person's hands. Jack got his orders. In China as a business person it's extremely dangerous to become too powerful or rich, especially now. Maybe you could have gotten away with it 15 years ago. China of today is very different from China of the late 1990s and 2000s. If Jack Ma had held onto his original contrived Ant position, he'd nearly be the richest person on earth, with a potential chokehold on finance, industry and retail in China. That position could have plausibly been worth several hundred billion dollars to him personally over time. That's not something you want to aspire to currently in China.
  - baybal2 8y ago

eip 8y ago

Enron 2019 confirmed.

daodedickinson 8y ago

Didn't think Musk would outlast him.

bitL 8y ago

Retire or get offed... Easy choice. I am wondering how many years has China left, unconstrained kleptocracy can't last more than a few decades.

mv4 8y ago

"When you are 50 to 60 years old, spend time training and developing young people, the next generation," Ma added. "When you are over 60 years old, you better stay with your grandchildren." https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/30/jack-ma-dont-fear-making-mistakes-in-your-20s-and-30s.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/30/jack-ma-dont-fear-making-mis...

libertine 8y ago
I actually believe this - he is fulfilling his vision of the stages in life. Sometimes there are no smokes and mirrors.
- flippyhead 8y ago
  I do too, but also, just wait; he may get bored.
- eip 8y ago
  >Sometimes there are no smokes and mirrors. This is hilariously ironic considering Alibaba is almost 100% smoke and mirrors.
  - fegul 8y ago
    How so?
    - akaij 8y ago
      I think they are referring to Alibaba (allegedly) being a front for the Chinese Communist Party to launder money.
      - eip 8y ago
        "Hey, from the latest 20-F (page 118) we know that you've created about 600 new legal entities over the last two years under your "Enhancement" program, getting more friends, family and political cronies involved in the dilution of the Capital Structure. So, I guess my question is "how long is this bullshit going to go on?"" https://deep-throat-ipo.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-calland-open-letter-to-securities.html https://deep-throat-ipo.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-calland-ope...

vincvinc 8y ago

> An Alibaba spokesman said Ma remains the company’s executive chairman and will provide transition plans over a significant period of time, contrary to a New York Times article that said he was “stepping down” to “retire.” The Times story was taken out of context, and factually wrong, the spokesman said. https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2163376/jack-ma-remain-alibabas-chairman-succession-plan-younger-talent https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2163376/jack...

leesalminen 8y ago
Does it surprise you that The NY Times took something out of context and provided factually false info?
- malcolmgreaves 8y ago
  Yes, it does.
- ProfBernardo 8y ago
  Nope, definitely not surprised.
- jlavine 8y ago
  It's their bread and butter. Sticking to the truth is tedious and gets fewer clicks than tabloid-style soap opera, so why bother?
- qubax 8y ago
  Not in the least. But they are the preferred "news" provider here and get spammed 24/7.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
CitizenTekk 8y ago
Retiring or not, he still is one of the riches man on the ASIA and will spend many years spending what he earned and that folks is a stone cold fact. So much for retirement money huh?

murali89 8y ago

Fake News

Mikho 8y ago

Jack Ma will be able to get more stuff done not being burdened by the Alibaba leader position. I guess it's just politics for his hands not to be tied and he could make bigger changes in China.

wanghq 8y ago

> Ma will remain executive chairman while the plan is carried out. A New York Times report that said he was “stepping down” to “retire” was out of context, and factually wrong, an Alibaba spokesman said https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2163376/jack-ma-remain-alibabas-chairman-succession-plan-younger-talent https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2163376/jack...