Where is Jack Ma, China's e-commerce pioneer?

China's best-kwn entrepreneur, e-commerce billionaire Jack Ma, hasn't been seen in public since he angered regulators with a speech in October.

That is prompting speculation about what might happen to Ma, billionaire founder of Alibaba Group, world's biggest e-commerce company.

former English teacher founded Alibaba Group in 1999, when China h few internet users. Online payments service Alipay launched five years later, before regulators said such businesses would be allowed. Both long shots grew to dominate ir industries.

Ma's latest gambit backfired after he called regulators too conservative in an Oct. 24 speech and urged m to be more invative.

y halted impending stock market debut of Ant Group, an online finance platform that grew out of Alipay. Alibaba's share price sank, possibly costing Ma his status as China's richest tycoon.

Since n, rmally voluble Ma has stayed out of public eye, canceled a TV appearance and avoided social media.

That has prompted a flurry of speculation about future of Ma, China's biggest global business celebrity and a symbol of its tech boom.

" Jack Ma Era is ended," wrote a blogger under name Yueyue Talks Techlogy. "It's too late to say goodbye."

Spokespeople for Alibaba and Ant didn't respond to questions about why Ma hasn't appeared in public.

Some see Ma's travails as a warning from ruling Communist Party that even a wildly successful entrepreneur can't publicly defy regulators. But finance experts said President Xi Jinping's government alrey was uneasy about Alibaba's dominance in retailing.

As for Ant, regulators worried it might d to financial risks seen by ruling party as one of biggest threats to China's ecomic growth.