Jack Ma to unveil succession plan after reports he will retire from Alibaba
One of China's richest men Jack Ma will unveil a succession strategy on Monday following reports he is preparing to retire from internet giant Alibaba.
Ma, who co-founded the Chinese tech behemoth in 1999, told the New York Times he planned to retire and focus on philanthropy in education.
The e-commerce empire, with a market value of more than $400bn (£309bn), covers a range of industries, including online retail, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and logistics.
He is expected to remain on Alibaba's board of directors.
Read more: Alibaba results: Revenue grows by a significant margin
The South China Morning Post reported that Ma would remain as executive chairman, citing a company spokesman, but that a succession strategy would be unveiled on Monday – his 54th birthday.
The company bolstered its position as China's largest online retailer last month, revealing revenue growth of 61 per cent for the three months ending 30 June.
Staying apace with its US rival Amazon's cloud growth, Alibaba posted a 93 per cent increase in cloud revenue to 4.7bn yuan, placing its attention on big data analytics and artificial intelligence.
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Meanwhile its digital and media arm posted a 46 per cent rise in revenue to 6bn yuan.
It now plans to merge its food delivery acquisition, Ele.me, with its own replica service Koubei, and begin to deliver Starbucks coffee to customers in a strategic partnership with the chain