Where is Jack Ma? Twitter in a frenzy after tech tycoon's disappearance from public eye

Social media users have set Twitter on fire after reports surfaced that Jack Ma, the Chinese billionaire and founder of the e-commerce platform Alibaba, has not been "seen" since October of last year.

What seemed to have sparked "disappearance" reports was that on October 24, Ma delivered unbridled statements against the financial system of China. The audience of Ma's fiery speech was mostly made up of high-ranking officials. Thereafter, Chinese regulators launched a "probe" into Alibaba over suspected monopolistic behavior.

One Twitter user Matt Stoller said, "Chinese billionaire Jack Ma is missing after criticizing the Chinese government. Wow. This would be like the U.S. government kidnapping Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg to teach them a lesson."

"Billionaire Jack Ma (@JackMa) suspected to be missing shortly after criticizing China's government. Chinese authorities launched an anti-monopoly investigation into Alibaba in late December and told Ant Group to restructure its operations," another user, Anonymous said.

Smita Prakash tweeted, "Where is Chinese billionaire Jack Ma? He has not made any public appearance in 2 months. He criticised Chinese regulators and state-owned banks in Shanghai in October."

Ma has already held back and has long passed the reins of Alibaba operations to Daniel Zhang. However, his pronouncements and advice carry great weight.

Ma is also known for his love for speeches and engagements, as well as his frank and outspoken character. This is why when he did not appear in the final episode of an African TV show that he has created, it certainly sparked discussions.

Bloomberg noted though that an Alibaba executive said that Ma was not able to attend because of conflicts in his schedule. The spokesperson did not, however, divulge anything relative to the whereabouts of Ma.

TechCrunch, a tech website, enumerated some tech tycoons who have opted to disappear from the public eye. One example is Pony Ma, founder of Tencent, who was not seen in public for about a year now, albeit the cause was said to be his back problems. Another well-known personality was Richard Liu, the founder of JD.com, who did not attend a political event in China last year. Liu was accused of rape.

As of press time, there has not been any update yet on Ma's whereabouts. Many are still wondering, "Where is Jack Ma?"

Where is Jack Ma