Ma stepped down as the CEO of the company in 2013. The new CEO is Johnathan Lu, who had previously been the company's senior vice president.
"I thought it would be easier when I stepped down from CEO," he told The Wall Street Journal, "But now I'm finding out being a chairman, if you want to be a good chairman, is much busier than being a CEO."
After the company filed for its IPO, Ma wrote a letter to Alibaba employees, which was printed by The Wall Street Journal. In it, Ma tells the team that there is "unparalleled ruthlessness and pressure" ahead, but that the company can overcome it by sticking to its original mission and culture.
Here's a nugget from the letter: "We know well we haven’t survived because our strategies are farsighted and brilliant, or because our execution is perfect, but because for 15 years we have persevered in our mission of 'making it easier to do business across the world,' because we have insisted on a 'customer first' value system, because we have persisted in believing in the future, and because we have insisted that normal people can do extraordinary things."