Jack's back after 75-day gap

Beijing: China's highest-profile entrepreneur, Jack Ma, appeared in an online video on Wednesday, ending a two-and-a-half month absence from public view that prompted speculation about the future of the e-commerce billionaire and his Alibaba Group.

In the 50-second video, Ma congratulated teachers supported by his foundation and made no mention of his disappearance or official efforts to tighten control over Alibaba and other internet companies over the past six months. The video appeared on Chinese business news and other websites. The normally voluble Ma disappeared from public view after he irked regulators by criticising them in an October 24 speech at a Shanghai conference. Days later, regulators suspended the planned multibillion-dollar stock market debut of Ant Group, a financial platform that grew out of Alibaba's payments service, Alipay.

That prompted speculation on the internet about whether Ma, China's biggest global business celebrity and a symbol of its tech boom, had been detained or might face legal trouble. Some people suggested the ruling Communist Party was making an example of Ma to show entrepreneurs couldn't defy regulators. But finance experts said President Xi Jinping's government already was uneasy about Alibaba's dominance in retailing and Ant's potential financial risks before Ma's speech.

Anti-monopoly regulators warned executives of Alibaba and five other tech giants in December not to use their dominance to block new competitors from entering their markets. The central bank and other regulators have ordered Ant to overhaul its business before its market debut can go ahead. (AP)