Alibaba Group Holding (NYSE:BABA) co-founder Jack Ma appeared at the company’s campus in Hangzhou, the capital of eastern Zhejiang province,

Ma and Alibaba co-founder Joe Tsai are currently the company’s two largest shareholders.

Ma resigned as Alibaba’s chairman in 2019 and has been hardly seen in public view since 2020 when Chinese regulators scrapped his ambitious initial public offering of fintech giant Ant Group at the last minute.

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Ma’s visit was meant to boost morale, SCMP reports, citing Alibaba employees. This marked his first reported trip back to his hometown since March 2023. He visited a school that he founded.

China is trying to boost its economy with fiscal stimulus to recover from the repercussions of its property market meltdown.

The nation also anticipates geopolitical tensions after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump threatened to levy additional tariffs on Chinese imports. Ma encouraged Alibaba to embrace competition as a growth driver.

Alibaba Group Holding stock gained 16% year-to-date. Last week, Alibaba shared plans to merge its domestic and international e-commerce operations into a single unit led by Jiang Fan, Alibaba E-commerce Business Group.

Alibaba reported fiscal second-quarter 2024 revenue growth of 5% to $33.70 billion, beating the analyst consensus of $33.47 billion. Adjusted earnings per ADS of $2.15 missed the analyst estimate of $2.26. 

Taobao and Tmall Group revenue rose by 1% to $14.11 billion, and Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group revenue climbed by 29% to $4.51 billion. Cloud Intelligence Group revenue grew by 7% to $4.22 billion.

Investors can gain exposure to Alibaba through Invesco Golden Dragon China ETF (NASDAQ:PGJ) and ProShares Online Retail ETF (NYSE:ONLN).

Price Action: BABA stock is up 0.06% at $86.61 premarket at the last check on Friday.

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