Alibaba Stock Plummets, Unable to Sell... The Dilemma of 'China's Jobs'

Jack Ma Withdraws Sale Plans Amid Stock Volatility
Disappeared for 2 Years After Harsh Criticism from Chinese Regulators
Recently Resumes External Activities Focused on Charitable Organizations

Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, China's largest e-commerce platform who once ranked among the wealthiest tycoons, has become unable to freely sell his company shares. This is due to the recent sharp decline in Alibaba's stock price.

On the 22nd (local time), U.S. economic media outlet CNBC reported that as Alibaba's stock price continued to plunge, Jack Ma decided to temporarily halt his plan to reduce his stake. Jane Zhang, Alibaba's Chief People Officer (CPO), emphasized in an internal letter to employees that "Jack Ma has not sold a single share of Alibaba stock."

Chairman Ma Yun of China's Alibaba Group [Photo by Yonhap News]

Jack Ma's suspension of his stock sale plan is a result of Alibaba's stock price plummeting. Alibaba is a company simultaneously listed on the U.S. and Hong Kong stock exchanges. Earlier, on the 16th, Alibaba also decided to halt the spin-off of its cloud business segment during its earnings announcement. This was due to disruptions in procuring high-performance computer chips caused by U.S. technology export restrictions.

Originally, Alibaba planned to spin off its cloud business, similar to Amazon's cloud service AWS (Amazon Web Services), to expand it aggressively. However, as securing advanced semiconductors, which are the most critical components in data centers, has become increasingly difficult, aggressive business expansion is now considered impossible.

The market viewed this announcement as negative news, and on the day of the earnings release, Alibaba's stock price plunged about 9% in the New York Stock Exchange. Consequently, Jack Ma's plan to sell shares was also temporarily suspended. Initially, Ma estimated the sale value at $870 million (approximately 1.13 trillion KRW), but at the current stock price, it is expected to amount to only $789.4 million (approximately 1.025 trillion KRW).

Meanwhile, Jack Ma founded Alibaba, China's first and largest e-commerce platform, in 1999. He led innovation in China's internet business through Alibaba and earned the nickname "China's Steve Jobs."

Jack Ma's sudden downfall began in 2020 when he openly criticized the "backwardness" of China's financial regulators. Under the Chinese Communist Party's scrutiny, plans to separately list Alibaba's fintech affiliate Ant Group were canceled, and Alibaba was fined about 3 trillion KRW in antitrust penalties.

Ultimately, Jack Ma effectively lost control over Alibaba's management and spent over two years in seclusion, leading a life of self-restraint. However, starting with a charity foundation event earlier this year, he has gradually expanded his public activities, raising the possibility of a management comeback.