JD.com responds to Jack Ma’s comments: sorry for making you worried

In response to Jack Ma’s comments that “JD.com will end up being a tragedy”, JD.com has published an article titled “We will do our best and time will prove everything”.

“We are in tears for we have made you so worried,” said JD.com in the article.

Jack Ma has made an apology on weibo, saying that his comments on JD.com took place in a conversation with a friend. He admitted that he had a habit of talking big, but he did not expect that would be reported to the public.

“Privacy is never absolutely secure. Next time I chat I would go to a public shower room. ” Jack Ma has said.

Jack Ma’s comments on JD.com originally appeared in a newly-published book about Alibaba by Fang Xingdong and Liu Wei. One of the authors writes that during a private conversation Jack Ma revealed his surprising opinions about Alibaba’s rival JD.com that he thought there was a huge flaw in JD.com’s business model.

“JD.com will end up being a tragedy. I have warned everyone of JD.com’s model from the very first day. That is an issue about directions. There is no way out...This is why I have told my company many times not to meddle with JD.com. So when it dies it could not blame us.”

On Alibaba’s messaging app, Laiwang, Jack Ma posted an article explaining how he came up with such words.

“I like chatting freely for fun. Over the years I have said many crazy things that embarrassed myself and others :( Such frivolousness and ignorance has always accompanied me. I should not have talked so childishly at my age. My tears are dropping now.

“I did not expect one of my friends had recorded and transcribed the conversation. Truly, many of the words were said by me. But media then ran articles titled me criticising JD.com and they spread fast. It is unfair for anybody that a private conversation is published. This in particular could cause confusion and trouble to JD.com. Apologies.”

But he did not just end here. His analysis went further.

“Allow me to supplement my other thoughts on JD.com. No business model is perfect. There is no such ‘one true model’. Everyone has a best model of his own. Any model that fits your dream and appeals to your customers is the best!!! It would be a shame if there is only one correct model in China’s internet industry. Certainly, entrepreneurs including me have been advancing with others’ criticism. Today’s JD.com is different from yesterday’s JD.com. We sincerely wish JD.com all the luck.”

In the end, Jack Ma writes,

“I probably might not be able to modify my obsession in tutoring others. But I do hope to express my views fully and to avoid hurting others. Happy New Year! (Next time if anyone wants to record my conversations, do bring two batteries. How troublesome it is when the battery is out of charge...)”

A storm in a milk tea cup

Recently JD.com has made headlines in many other ways. Liu Qiangdong, its founder, has just ended a relationship with Zhang Zetian, or Milk Tea Girl, who made her name because of a photo of her holding a bottle of milk tea when she was in middle school.

Zhang Zetian has emptied all the messages on her weibo, and Liu Qiangdong has deleted the one in which he confessed his affections for the much younger girl.

The two were reported to first meet in New York when Zhang Zetian was on an exchange program with Barnard College. Both of them denied they were together at first.

On a Phoenix TV’s talk show called Qiangqiang Sanrenxing, one guest suggested their breakup might have something to do with Yang Weize, mayor of Nanjing, who was sacked recently in Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign.

Zhang Lihou, father of the milk tea girl, is the director of Nanjing’s Huisitong, an engineering company that has been involved in a number of development projects in the city.