Beijing pursues its attack on Jack Ma

After a three-month absence, Chinese billionaire Jack Ma’s re-emergence prompted a rally in the shares of Alibaba – the e-commerce group he founded – but affiliate Ant could face antitrust probes


Alibaba share price (HK$)

Oct 23: 309.92

Oct 24: Ma describes Chinese regulators as having “pawnshop mentality.” Comments anger Communist Party

Nov 5: Ant’s record-breaking $37 billion stock market debut cancelled. IPO would have been world’s largest
287.75 

Dec 24: Alibaba’s shares down 32% from October 23
211.23

Jan 21: Ma reappears in video. Alibaba stock rallies by 5.5%.
Central bank threatens Alipay with antitrust probes 
265.49

Jan 22: 250.60

300
275
250 
225 
200
	October November December January
  

China’s mobile payments market

Alipay 55.6%
WeChat Pay 38.8%
Others 5.6%
  

Jack Ma: Faces new regulations that could define Ant Group’s Alipay and Tencent Holdings’ WeChat Pay as monopolies and make them subject to penalties, or see them broken up
                       

Sources: Bloomberg, Financial Times, Yahoo! Finance 
Picture: Getty Images 
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