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By Josh Horwitz
SHANGHAI, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Alibaba Group chairman Jack Mawill step down from the Chinese firm on Tuesday, leaving hishandpicked successor a daunting task of steering the $460billion juggernaut at a time when the market for its coree-commerce business has slowed sharply.
As Ma, who turns 55 on Tuesday, holds centrestage at hisfarewell party in the 80,000-capacity Hangzhou Olympic SportsCenter stadium to the accompaniment of music and celebrityperformances, attendees will be hoping to get clues on howAlibaba will be run under his heir Daniel Zhang.
An accountant by trade, soft-spoken Alibaba CEO Zhang marksa stark contrast to Ma whose flamboyant style and charismaticleadership made him the most recognised Chinese entrepreneursince the former English teacher founded the company 20 yearsago in a small shared apartment in Hangzhou city in easternChina.
"He has the logic and critical thinking skills of a supercomputer, a commitment to his vision, the courage towholeheartedly dare to take on innovative business models andindustries of the future," Ma said of Zhang in 2018 in a messageannouncing his appointment.
One of Zhang's major challenges will be finding new areas ofgrowth as China's e-commerce sector matures, analysts said.
Last week, Alibaba announced investments of $2.7 billion inluxury goods retail platform Kaola and a music streaming firm inmoves that partly demonstrated its flexibility in adopting newstrategies.
"If Alibaba wants to find new innovations or trends this isgoing to be more difficult than before," said Liu Yiming, ananalyst at the research division of 36kr, a Chinese techpublishing group.
"For Daniel Zhang, this will be a big challenge."
China's online retail sales grew just 17.8% in the firsthalf of 2019, almost halving from the 32.4% growth of the prioryear, according to the national statistics office.
MA'S LEGACY
The resignation plan announced by Ma last year was perceivedas unusual as it is rare for a founder of such a big andtransformative tech firm to retire this early.
Under Ma's leadership, Alibaba has grown to become Asia'smost valuable listed company, with a current marketcapitalisation of $460 billion. It employs over 100,000 people,and has expanded into financial services, cloud computing andartificial intelligence.
When Ma makes his farewell speech, investors would like tohear how he will be involved in management and whether he willcontinue to steer the company's broad strategy. Ma has said thathe will continue to mentor management.
After his resignation, Ma, China's richest man with a networth of $38.4 billion, according to Forbes, is set to spendmore time on philanthropy and education. Yet he will remain amember of Alibaba's partnership, a corporate governing group of38 individuals that is separate from the board of directors.
While the story of Ma's success has become legend in Chinaand gives him almost cult-like status there, he has alsosuffered some setbacks that Zhang would need to repair.
Ma struggled to expand Alibaba internationally, with thefailed $1.2 billion acquisition of remittance provider MoneyGrammarking a key disappointment.
Its Taobao marketplace has been accused by overseas luxurygoods sellers of being a haven for counterfeit products. It ison a U.S. list of "notorious markets" for goods that infringe onAmerican intellectual property, a main source of friction in anescalating trade war between Beijing and Washington.
Ma also drew ire and sparked a nationwide debate about workculture in China earlier this year when he urged tech companyemployees to work nights and weekends.
While it remains to be seen how Alibaba will be steered byZhang, Tuesday's extravaganza promises to offer a spectacle andpossibly a final opportunity for Ma to display showmanship.
At previous company events, he dressed up as Michael Jacksonor a punk rocker and performed musical numbers.
"I expect a long, long ceremony with Jack showing up at theend - in dramatic style, of course," says one Alibaba employee."And plenty of people with their computers out working."(Reporting by Josh Horwitz; Editing by Miyoung Kim andMuralikumar Anantharaman)