Alibaba closes social science institute that Jack Ma once hoped would exist for 300 years

Alibaba Group Holding, a prominent Chinese company, has made the decision to shut down the Luohan Academy. This social science institute was a brainchild of Alibaba's founder, Jack Ma, who had envisioned it to last for 300 years. The academy was established in June 2018 with the noble objective of addressing some of the world's most critical economic and social issues. However, the closure of the academy is part of a larger restructuring process within Alibaba. The company is dividing its vast business empire into six main groups. These include Taobao and Tmall, cloud, local services, international commerce, entertainment, and Cainiao. Cainiao, the smart logistics network of Alibaba, has submitted an application for an initial public offering in Hong Kong with the aim of raising at least US$1 billion. Despite the closure of the academy, some of its operations continue to exist within Alibaba. This includes the environmental, social, and governance research team. As part of the restructuring, resources and personnel are being reallocated to frontline businesses. Alibaba's new CEO, Eddie Wu Yongming, stated in a letter to employees that the company will now concentrate on two primary themes. These are 'users first' and 'artificial intelligence-driven'. The Luohan Academy, which sponsored research programmes on topics such as 'privacy and data governance', 'measuring the new economy', and 'future finance', functioned more as an academic institute than a revenue-generating business entity. It hosted an annual digital economy conference that brought together scholars and economists from the US, Europe, and China for a two-day discussion on the evolving digital future. Jack Ma, who stepped down as Alibaba's chairman in September 2019, was a strong supporter of the Luohan Academy. He believed that the academy was part of the company's responsibility to address certain questions about the impact of technology on society. He had hoped that the Luohan Academy would continue for 300 years. However, both Alibaba and the Luohan Academy have declined to comment on the closure.