Dozens of orders had been placed for those two seafood products on Tmall as of Tuesday noon, which could be viewed by some as a lukewarm performance on the platform. Taobao and Tmall have more than 800 million monthly active users as of November. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
The online marketing drive by 1.8 Meters marks another step in Ma’s efforts to branch out into agriculture and sustainable food production, following his extensive travels to do research into these sectors as part of his post-retirement focus.
The start-up’s president, Simon Hu Xiaoming, is a veteran executive at Alibaba who previously served as chief executive of financial technology giant Ant Group. The 1.8 Meters management team also includes Ding Ming, former head of Ant’s investment unit, and Gong Yuping, a former human resources manager at Alibaba.
The firm’s controlling shareholder is Hong Kong-based 1.8 Meters Technology Holding, which has a 71 per cent stake, according to information on Qichacha, a Chinese corporate information website. Hangzhou Dajingtou No 22 Arts and Culture Co, one of the ventures created by billionaire Ma in 2019 for investment deals in China, previously held a 10 per cent stake in the start-up.
Ma, who retired as Alibaba’s executive chairman in 2019 on his 55th birthday, has also recently started a new company, with a name that translates to “Hangzhou Ma’s Kitchen Food” in English, focused on sales of pre-packaged food as well as the primary processing and sale of edible agricultural products.
In June this year, Ma conducted his first class as a visiting professor in a seminar jointly organised by Tokyo College and the University of Tokyo’s Global Leadership Programme. Ma has assumed professorships in various schools outside mainland China. He has accepted a three-year term as honorary professor at the University of Hong Kong.
While he no longer holds any corporate roles at Alibaba, Ma still has a significant influence over China’s largest e-commerce company.
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