Jack Ma, the founder of the Chinese tech giant Alibaba, has made a new move.
1.8 meters is the "new height" of his entrepreneurship and the name of the new company.
"One meter eight" is coming
Yesterday, Hu Xiaoming, the former CEO of Ant Group, posted on Weibo that 1.8 Agricultural Technology Company was officially established, with him as chairman and chief quality control officer.
The mission of 1.8 is to "make agriculture better due to technological innovation", hoping to improve the efficiency of agriculture through technological innovation, provide consumers with better high-quality ingredients, and enable farmers to obtain higher incomes.
Hu Xiaoming said that the name of the "1.8 meters" company comes from Ma Yun's original intention of participating in agriculture - "all mothers in the world hope that their children can grow up healthily and be more than 1.8 meters tall."
Hu Xiaoming hopes that this concept will bring hope and purpose to China's agriculture and food industry, as well as to ourselves.
Weibo also wrote that today's agriculture needs more technological innovation, high-quality breeding, planting and breeding, and facility agriculture, and emphasized that China needs more young people and talents who have been engaged in the Internet and technology industries to enter the agricultural field.
1.8 Meter 8 Agricultural Science and Technology Co., Ltd. was established in May this year with a registered capital of 110 million yuan, 18 meters technology holding limited holds 80% of the shares of the company and is the controlling shareholder.
Judging from the equity penetration information, Ma Yun Holdings' Hangzhou Dajingtou Ershi No. 2 Culture and Art holds 10% of the company's shares, and many executives of the "One Meter Eight" company have the same name as Ali employees.
Another 1.8 Food Technology Co., Ltd., which was established in August this year, also has Ma Yun and Hu Xiaoming after the shareholders penetrate, and the company is mainly engaged in research and experimental development.
In November this year, Hangzhou Majia Kitchen Food Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Majia Kitchen) was incorporated, and the company was held by Hangzhou Dajingtou No. 2 Culture and Art.
Among them, the business project of "pre-packaged food" reminds the outside world of prefabricated dishes that are still in the wind. However, Chen Wei, a former assistant to Ma Yun, posted a response on WeChat Moments, saying, "Ma's kitchen definitely doesn't make pre-made dishes."
Jack Ma has a strong interest in eating. He once said, "Eating is the road to the world, not a track to invest and make a lot of money." ”
Now, with the establishment of the "One Meter Eight Series" company, Ma Yun's layout of large agriculture has gradually become clear.
At present, the business of the "one meter eight" series company has gradually rolled out, and the first batch of products have also been launched.
Hu Xiaoming said that two high-quality products, Zhoushan Shengsi Islands mussels and Wenzhou Nanji Island large yellow croaker, are currently available on the Hema channel, and will be released in more online and offline channels as soon as possible**.
Ma Yun is deeply involved in big agriculture, in fact, there have been traces for a long time. In recent years, Mr. Ma's itinerary has largely revolved around investigations in areas such as agriculture and food.
Jack Ma's dedication to agriculture
In October 2020, after Jack Ma criticized the financial regulatory system at the Shanghai Bund Finance Summit, the $37 billion IPO of subsidiary Ant Group was also halted.
After that, he could only keep a low profile and fade out of the public eye, and then went abroad to start a cross-country trip.
In September 2021, Ma Yun appeared in Pinghu, Jiaxing, Zhejiang, visited several agricultural greenhouses and inspected Alibaba's digital agriculture base.
A week later, on October 26, citing people familiar with the matter, it was reported that Jack Ma was in the Netherlands to visit a research institute to inspect agricultural technology.
Mr. Ma believes combining the technology he examines with Alibaba's cloud computing, big data analytics and artificial intelligence technology could help modernize China's agriculture, people familiar with the matter said.
In July 2022, Jack Ma visited the Netherlands and visited Wageningen University, which is known for its agricultural research.
The university said on its website that Mr. Ma "wants to devote his time and energy entirely to agriculture and food sustainability, including on the Gobi Desert."
Ma Yun also lived in Japan for half a year in 2022, visiting University and Ocean University of Japan to study related marine aquaculture technologies.
Later, in January this year, he went to Bangkok, Thailand, to inspect CP Group, Asia's largest agricultural company, mainly to investigate Southeast Asian agricultural technology.
Jack Ma hopes to use the market scale of CP Group in the agricultural field to promote the development of China's agriculture and enable more Chinese farmers to reduce poverty and achieve prosperity.
On March 27 this year, Jack Ma returned to Hangzhou, where he founded Alibaba, and also marked that he would set sail again.
In April, Tel Aviv University announced on its website that Jack Ma would be a visiting professor at the university, and that he would also be involved in research on sustainable agriculture and food.
Ma Yun said that in the past few years, I have learned Xi how to do a good job in agriculture, whether it is planting grass, tea, grapes, or in the process of studying fish farming, cattle raising and winemaking, I found that the place where agriculture does well is not necessarily a place with good resources, but often a place with unique thinking and imagination.
In the eyes of the outside world, this may be the business map of Ma Yun after fading out of the Internet.
As for Jack Ma himself, he will enter the year of Ear Shun next year, and whether he can create another peak in his life and truly solve China's food safety problems can only wait for the answer of time.