Beijing, February 2: Jack Ma was absent from a list of China's entrepreneurial icons published by state media on Tuesday. According to a Bloomberg report, what was more surprising was Ali Baba’s co-founder archrival Pony Ma was credited with "rewriting the mobile age" with Tencent Holdings Ltd. The other people in the list were BYD Co. Chairman Wang Chuanfu, Xiaomi Corp. co-founder Lei Jun and Huawei Technologies Co.'s Ren Zhengfei.

Ma had made a candid speech criticizing China's financial regulators and the state-owned banks in October last year. Following which, the $37 billion initial public offerings of his company Ant Group was suspended by the authorities. Jack Ma, Chinese Billionaire & Founder of Alibaba, Not Seen in Public for Two Months.

Jack Ma's net worth went down by almost $11 billion since the end of October as China stepped up scrutiny of his empire and the country's tech behemoths. After missing from the public eye for almost two months, a video of Jack Ma resurfaced after months of speculations. According to reports, he met with 100 rural teachers from across the country via video link on Wednesday. “We’ll meet again after the epidemic is over,” he told them. Tianmu News, a news portal under Zhejiang Online, a government-backed news website, reported about the meeting.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 02, 2021 11:36 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).