Internet
tycoon Jack Ma has said his employees will not receive traditional
Chinese New Year gifts because 2014 had not been "exceptional" for the
company, despite its world-beating IPO listing on Wall Street.
Chinese
bosses ordinarily hand out "hong bao" -- red envelopes filled with cash
-- to staff ahead of the week-long holiday to wish them luck for the
year ahead.
Chinese New Year begins on February 19 and will usher in the Year of the Sheep, while waving goodbye to the Year of the Horse.
Although
Alibaba employees will still receive a bonus, they will not take home
the traditional symbol of prosperity due to the lack of any
"particularly stunning" results, Ma said.
"There will be no
distribution of red envelopes for the simple reason that Alibaba has not
had exceptional results and that we haven't seen anything particularly
stunning," China's richest man said in a message published Friday on a
local social network.
"The IPO success was nothing surprising,
but simply the fruits of the dogged work by Alibaba staff over 15
years," Ma said. "Apart from this IPO we could not say objectively that
we have been overjoyed with the year just gone."
The letter will
raise eyebrows as 2014 was widely viewed as a blockbuster year for the
firm, with its $25 billion listing on the New York Stock Exchange in
September propelling Ma to the top of China's rich list overnight. The
firm's fortunes have turned somewhat in last few weeks, however.
A
Chinese government agency has accused the firm of allowing "illegal
operations" to flourish on its websites, including the sale of
counterfeit or fake merchandise -- which has in turn raised questions by
US stock market regulators.
Alibaba is often described as the
Chinese version of eBay, but it surpassed the US company in China more
than a decade ago, essentially forcing it to retreat in the Chinese
market.
Its flagship platform Taobao is estimated to hold more
than 90 percent of the Chinese market for consumer-to-consumer
transactions.
