(Image source from: HuffPost India)

Chinese business magnate Jack Ma officially on his 55th birthday (September 10) stepped down as an Executive Chairman of Alibaba, a multinational conglomerate company specializing in e-commerce, retail, Internet, and technology.

According to a report by CNN, he will be celebrating his retirement with a big bash at an Olympic-sized stadium in Hangzhou, the company’s hometown.

Ma’s handpicked successor Daniel Zhan will be assigned with a dismaying task of steering the $460 billion Alibaba amid the slow down in the market for its core e-commerce business. Zhang will play a crucial role in finding new areas of growth as China's e-commerce sector evolves.

Alibaba has turned out to be Asia’s most valuable company under Ma’s leadership, with a current market capitalization of $460 billion. In November 2018, Ma was honored as one of the 100 people who had made outstanding contributions to China’s economic transformation in the past four decades by the Chinese government.

Read: People Can Work 12 Hours a Week with Artificial Intelligence: Jack Ma

Following his retirement, Ma aims to devote more time to philanthropy and education. Thus, his Jack Ma Foundation would work towards penetrating education in all peripheries of the nation.

In the past two decades, Alibaba besides dominating the market in China by growing by leaps also grabbed a market share in most of South and Southeast Asia nations.

Nevertheless, due to the current economic slowdown, it will be a big challenge for Zhang. China's online retail sales grew just 17.8 percent in the first half of 2019, almost halving from the 32.4 percent growth of the prior year, according to the national statistics office.

By Sowmya Sangam