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Chinese tech billionaire Jack Ma VANISHES from his own reality show

Chinese tech billionaire Jack Ma VANISHES from his own reality show as Beijing launches probe into his ‘monopoly’

  • Chinese tech billionaire Jack Ma has vanished from his own reality TV show 
  • It comes as Alibaba Group is at the centre of an anti-monopoly investigation 
  •  Market regulator said it was looking into Alibaba’s policy of ‘choose one of two’

Chinese tech billionaire Jack Ma has vanished from his own reality TV show as Beijing launches a probe into alleged monopoly.  

It comes after Chinese regulators announced an anti-monopoly investigation of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, stepping up official efforts to tighten control over the country’s fast-growing tech industries.

The market regulator said it was looking into Alibaba’s policy of ‘choose one of two’, which requires business partners to avoid dealing with competitors.

Chinese tech billionaire Jack Ma has vanished from his own reality TV show as Beijing launches a probe into his alleged monopoly. Ma pictured above in a file image

Chinese tech billionaire Jack Ma has vanished from his own reality TV show as Beijing launches a probe into his alleged monopoly. Ma pictured above in a file image 

The one sentence statement gave no details of possible penalties or a timeline to announce a result. 

Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma is China’s richest entrepreneur and one of the country’s best-known figures.

According to a report in the Financial Times, Mr Ma has been removed as a judge from the final of reality TV show Africa’s Business Heroes. 

His photograph has also reportedly been removed from the judging webpage and he was left out of a promotional video.     

Chinese leaders have previously said stepping up anti-monopoly enforcement will be an economic priority in the coming year.

Alibaba's founder Jack Ma, pictured in a file photo above, is China's richest entrepreneur and one of the country's best-known figures.

Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma, pictured in a file photo above, is China’s richest entrepreneur and one of the country’s best-known figures. 

They appear to be especially concerned about tightening control over Alibaba and other dominant internet companies that are expanding into finance, health care and other businesses.  

Regulators earlier forced the suspension of the stock market debut of Ant Group, an online finance platform spun off from Alibaba.

A separate announcement on Thursday said officials of Ant had been summoned to meet with regulators.

Alibaba, the world’s biggest e-commerce company by total sales volume, and another company were fined in mid-December for failing to apply for official approval before proceeding with some acquisitions.

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