Jack Ma is now no longer the majority shareholder of Ant Group. After restructuring the company's organization and shares, Ma only holds 6% of the company's shares compared to 50% before. After the restructuring too, no one person holds the majority of the company's shares and has the absolute power to determine the direction of the company alone.
In recent years, the Chinese government has put pressure on the country's technology companies that are seen as having too much power with founders who can issue statements that are not in line with the government's opinion. As the founder of Ant Group, Ma is the most recognizable technocrat outside of China with a fortune generated by the success of the AliPay system used throughout China.
Ma was once reported missing for two months and then only reappeared in Japan where he managed to hide his true identity from the public. Besides him, ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming and JD.Com founder Richard Liu have also withdrawn from the day-to-day management of the company in 2021 also believed to be due to pressure imposed by the government.
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