Jack Ma got rich as the founder of Internet giant Alibaba.
Now the billionaire and second richest man in China has mysteriously disappeared.
Beijing - The Chinese billionaire Jack Ma made a fortune with his internet company Alibaba.
Ma was long considered the richest Chinese, but was overtaken by entrepreneur Zhong Shanshan last September.
And otherwise 2020 was not a good year for Jack Ma: After a failed IPO and investigations against Alibaba, the billionaire was last quiet.
Jack Ma has not been seen in public for two months.
There are already rumors surrounding his mysterious disappearance: Did the Beijing regime take the billionaire out of circulation like so many unwelcome entrepreneurs before him?
China's antitrust authorities launched an investigation against the Chinese Internet giant Alibaba at Christmas.
As the authority announced, the country's largest online retailer is being investigated for alleged monopoly offenses.
There are also allegations that Alibaba is causing companies to only choose their own platform as an exclusive sales channel.
For Alibaba, the investigation is another setback after the company has been increasingly targeted by the Chinese authorities in recent weeks.
At the beginning of November, the planned record IPO of the Alibaba financial subsidiary Ant Group fell short after an intervention by Chinese supervisors.
The Shanghai Stock Exchange had justified the move by stating that the “regulatory environment” had changed significantly.
The cancellation of the IPO was accompanied by reports that Alibaba founder Jack Ma had angered the Chinese leadership.
A speech by the second richest man in China is said to have not been well received.
The Alibaba founder, who is otherwise always loyal to the Communist Party, had sharply criticized local and global regulatory authorities.
The disappearance of Jack Ma was a reminder of the fate of numerous other influential Chinese.
Many of them were initially thought to be missing, but it was later revealed that they had long since been arrested.
For example, Guo Guangchan, who was considered the "Warren Buffet of China", disappeared for several days in 2015.
The reason was investigations by the authorities.
In the case of Jack Ma, the all-clear seems to have been given for the time being.
The billionaire has deliberately withdrawn, said a person close to the business news broadcaster CNBC.
(with material from dpa)