He is arguably the most successful businessman in Asia. Jack Ma built not one but two companies that topped $150 billion in market value — something only Elon Musk has done with Tesla and PayPal. And along the way, Ma (who Forbes estimates is worth $60 billion) also built a series of investment firms as well as a financial and entertainment empire that produces films, television programs, sells insurance and, several years ago, helped take control of one of the world’s hottest mobile gaming startups, an Israel-based firm called Playtika.

While it’s not clear Ma retains a stake in Playtika, one of his close business partners does. In this week’s Big Picture, we look at the Jack Ma Empire and his network of longtime friends and business partners. It’s an interesting group to watch at a time when Ma has disappeared from public view.

After he criticized financial regulators in a speech in Shanghai last October, Beijing canceled the initial public offering of his financial services powerhouse, the Ant Group, and has threatened to carve up his empire. That empire is not simply Ant and Alibaba, the New York Stock Exchange listed e-commerce giant; it’s also hundreds of other companies that have been swallowed up by Ant and Alibaba or been invested in personally by Ma through Yunfeng Capital¹Yun is for Ma Yun, Jack’s Chinese first name; and Feng is Yu Feng, his co-founder of the firm, the venture capital and investment fund he set up with a group of friends. These are some of the key people in Jack Ma’s circle.

Below, in our timeline, we also look at some of the highlights of Ma’s career, beginning with his founding of China Pages in 1995, his first venture into e-commerce. While the company, which had partners in Seattle, failed, it set the stage for Alibaba.com, a partnership with Yahoo, the development of the commerce platform called Taobao and the emergence of China’s biggest privately-held firm, the Alibaba Group.

---