Jack Ma returned to China, two years of stealth has been Ali's "outsider"

Jack Ma communicates with the principal of Yungu School Source: Yungu Education

Author丨Cheng Xiaoyi

Editor丨 Kang Xiao

Produced by Tencent News Xiaoman Studio

When Ma returned to China, his first stop was not Alibaba Group, but Yungu School, a 15-year "non-profit" international school founded by Alibaba Partners in 2017.

"We need to use AI to solve problems, not be controlled by AI." On March 27, when Ma Yun and the principals of Yungu School gathered to discuss "the challenges and opportunities of technological change for education", they said that ChatGPT is only the beginning of the AI era, although human physical and mental strength are not as good as machines, "but machines only have 'core', and people have 'heart'".

Similar views, Ma Yun also mentioned in a 45-minute "heated debate" with Musk in 2019, he believes that if you want to survive in the era of artificial intelligence, "love quotient" is high. "Machines can replace babysitters, but not motherhood; Machines can replace nurses, but they can't replace care. ”

Nearly four years after his retirement, Ma Yun has become farther and farther away from Ali, closer and closer to agriculture and education.

After the turmoil of Ant's listing, from 2021, Ma Yun began a global agricultural expedition. In September 2021, he visited the agricultural greenhouse in Pinghu, Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province; On October 19, he went abroad for the first time to study agriculture and technologies related to environmental issues; On October 26, he visited a Dutch research institute to investigate agricultural technology; In 2022, visit the Japan University of Marine Aquaculture to study marine aquaculture technology; At the beginning of 2023, Ma Yun was photographed by Thai netizens visiting a shrimp farming factory, and Ma Yun in the photo was wearing a white coat and rain boots like other staff, and his complexion was much darker.

On March 26, 2023, Ma Yun finally ended more than two years of overseas inspection and landed in Hangzhou, and it was reported that he was specially picked up by Daniel Zhang, the current chairman of the board of directors and CEO of Alibaba, and Shao Xiaofeng, executive vice president of Ant Group.

However, at this time, whether for Ali or Ant Group, Ma Yun was already an outsider.

Jack Ma is invisible, because the ants begin and end with the ants

Jack Ma's two-year "stealth" began with the Ant Group and ended with the Ant Group.

Two months before returning to China, Ma had cut off his relationship with the Ant Group. On January 7, after the signing of the Concerted Action Agreement and other documents, Ma gave up de facto control of Ant Group, which had been valued at 2.1 trillion yuan three years ago. Relevant members of the management of Ant Group also ceased to serve as partners of Alibaba, strengthening the isolation from shareholder Ali Group.

Some former Ali employees told "Prism" that since October 2022, Ant and Ali have been completely isolated and independent, and the direct transfer channel within employees is closed, and they can only join after leaving their jobs; Ants' badges cannot enter the park of Ali Group; Ali employees who previously performed particularly well will be awarded some additional ant options for the year-end bonus, and this incentive method has also been abolished.

In the above interview, some Ant employees optimistically predicted that the listing could be restarted after the rectification was completed, and the forecast time ranged from 2023 to 2025. The ant listing feast may reopen, but Ma is destined to be absent.

In the more than two years that Ma Yun was invisible, as Ali's stock price plummeted, Ma Yun's personal net worth shrank by 169.4 billion yuan.

According to the 2022 New Fortune 500 list, Ma Yun ranked 14th with a wealth of 132.72 billion yuan, falling out of the top ten. In 2022, Jack Ma once topped the richest man with a net worth of 302.14 billion yuan. Alibaba Group's share price has fallen from a peak of $319.32 per share in October 2020 to $86.9 per share today (as of the close of U.S. stocks on March 26), and its lowest point has reached $58.1 per share (stock price on October 24, 2022).

Now Jack Ma's return has only caused a temporary "change" in the secondary market. After the news of Jack Ma's return to China was confirmed, Alibaba's Hong Kong stock once turned to 5%, leading technology stocks to narrow their decline, but then declined, as of the close of Hong Kong stocks on March 27, Ali edged down 0.06% to close at HK$85.25 per share.

As early as the early days of entrepreneurship, Ma Yun had a clear plan for his life: make money before the age of 50, and do public welfare after the age of 50. From the perspective of actual actions, Ma Yun can be said to plan to retire from the age of 40.

In 2006, Alibaba brought in professional managers, and 41-year-old Jack Ma gave way to Wei Zhe. In 2013, 48-year-old Jack Ma handed over the CEO position to Lu Zhaoxi (flower name: Temujin, retired). In 2014, Alibaba replaced the professional manager system with a partnership system, downplaying the concept of "founder", and Ma Yun and Cai Chongxin were permanent partners, and the rest were temporary partners. In 2015, Daniel Zhang (Xiaoyaozi) succeeded Lu Zhaoxi as CEO of Alibaba Group. In 2019, Jack Ma officially stepped down as chairman of the board of directors and took over Daniel Zhang.

"I have been preparing for this day for 10 years. Today is not Jack Ma's retirement, but the beginning of the inheritance of the system. Not a one's choice, but the success of the system. Ma Yun said at the time. A year after the handover, Daniel Zhang Ma Yun disappeared from Alibaba's list of board members and completely withdrew from Alibaba's board of directors, and so far, Ma Yun has only retained his status as a permanent partner in Alibaba.

Daniel Zhang era: Only one of the 13 most powerful people remains

After taking over Ali Daniel Zhang, he carried out many organizational structure operations, and now Ali can be said to have completely walked out of the "Jack Ma era" and entered the "Daniel Zhang era".

An Ali insider told "Deep Net" that it can be seen from Ali's personnel changes in the past two years that Daniel Zhang has great power and has become the real Ali helm.

Alibaba's organizational structure has maintained an annual adjustment rhythm in recent years. Daniel Zhang played an important role in the two organizational restructurings before 2019, but in 2019 and beyond, Daniel Zhang can be called from an executive to a "true leader".

In the organizational change on December 19, 2019, Ali's power system was once again centralized. The number of executives with direct reporting authority to Daniel Zhang was reduced, and Jiang Fan and Dai Shan were given higher authority; The investment departments scattered among the various business entities (except Ant Financial War Investment Department) are all under the unified management of the Group's investment department, including the investment departments of Ele.me, Cainiao, Ali Health, Alibaba Pictures and other businesses.

"Once in Alibaba, it was Jack Ma and Cai Chongxin who could not move, and now Alibaba, it is Daniel Zhang who cannot move. Perhaps after this adjustment, Daniel Zhang will have its own Chinese iron army. An Ali source once told Deep Web.

According to Caijing, the Executive Committee of Alibaba's Economic Development is personally led by Daniel Zhang to unify Alibaba's strategy for all economies. The total number of members is 13, and he is called "Alibaba's 13 most powerful people." Among them, the 13 members of the Executive Committee of Economic Development are Daniel Zhang, Jing Xiandong (Wang Anshi), Zhang Jianfeng (Xingxia), Jiang Fan, Hu Xiaoming (Sun Quan), Wang Lei (Kunyang), Dai Shan (Su Quan), Ni Xingjun (Miao Renfeng), Huang Hao, Wang Shuai (Benlei Hand), Shao Xiaofeng (Guo Jing), Wu Wei and Tong Wenhong.

During Ma's three years of invisibility, the list changed dramatically. According to incomplete statistics from "Deep Web", only Daniel Zhang people have not changed their business and jurisdiction.

The main business and jurisdiction content have not changed, but because of the failure of Ant's listing, there are three Ant families who are doing more cuts with the group: Jing Xiandong, chairman and CEO of Ant Group, Shao Xiaofeng, executive vice president of Ant Group, Ni Xingjun, CTO of Ant Group, and Huang Hao, president of Ant Group's digital finance business group.

The business has undergone huge changes, including Jiang Fan, who was affected by the Internet celebrity derailment incident, Hu Xiaoming, who was affected by the unsuccessful listing of ants, Wang Lei, who was affected by the local life performance, Dai Shan, who gradually controlled more authority with the changes in the to B business, and Zhang Jianfeng, who left Alibaba Cloud to become the president of Damo Academy due to the "downtime incident" of Alibaba Cloud.

In addition, Ali CPO (Chief Human Resources Officer) Tong Wenhong will step down on April 1 this year. Wu Wei stepped down as CFO and was replaced by Xu Hong. Wang Shuai, head of the public relations market system, previously reported that the internal announcement of retirement, and Ali did not respond to this.

In the "Daniel Zhang era", Ali was severely hit by many incidents such as Pinduoduo's chasing and blocking, "choosing one of the two" heavy punishments, and the "sexual assault incident" storm. The revenue and profits of the two pillars of Alibaba, Taobao and Tmall, weakened at the same time, and Ali's "zoo animals" began to support themselves.

Alibaba's profit has significantly exceeded market expectations for three consecutive quarters, and the latest financial report (the third quarter of fiscal 2023 as of the end of 2022) shows that Alibaba's profit after excluding equity and amortization expenses reached 53 billion yuan, much higher than the market expectation of 47 billion yuan.

The agricultural technology brought back by Ma Yun may help Ali open up a new track.

According to 35 Dou combing, Alibaba's digital economy has a lot of agriculture-related business, including agricultural material supply, agricultural planting, agricultural breeding technology services, rural digital infrastructure, agricultural products upstreaming, e-commerce live streaming, agricultural product logistics, new retail, etc. 35 Dou summarizes it as: deeply participate in the cultivation of agricultural products, serve agricultural products from farm land to table, agricultural materials from factory to farm land. At the same time, Ant Financial, Alibaba Cloud, Cainiao, etc. provide "infrastructure" services such as finance, cloud computing, and logistics.

On February 23 this year, Ali invested in the universal biological breeding platform Boredi to target the long-term "stuck neck" problem of Chinese seeds.

Ma Yun once proposed the "1,000 US dollars per acre" plan in 2015, "I have great respect for Mr. Yuan Longping, he has achieved a thousand dollars per acre, and we hope that through the means of the Internet, through the efforts of our generation, the mu yield will be made to a thousand dollars, and the land will become the real source of wealth for farmers." ”

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