In order to study Alibaba's partnership system, we studied Alibaba's prospectus for listing in the United States in 2014 and in Hong Kong in 2019, and reviewed more than 2,000 pages of information.

1. The Alibaba partnership system began trial operation in 2010, and 2010 was the time when the agreement between Jack Ma and Yahoo on control rights expired.

2. In 2013, Alibaba was preparing to go public in Hong Kong and disclosed the Alibaba partnership system to the public for the first time.

3. The Alibaba partnership system stipulates that more than half of the directors must be recommended by Alibaba partners, which did not comply with the rules of Hong Kong at the time, so it was not listed in Hong Kong. In 2014, Alibaba switched to the United States for listing.

In order to adhere to the Alibaba partnership system, Jack Ma would rather give up the listing. It can be seen how important Jack Ma thinks this system is?

4. The Alibaba partnership system mainly has two functions:

The first function is to solve the problem of control rights. Jack Ma can have control even if he holds 5% of the shares.

The second major function is to solve the problem of inheritance, so Jack Ma can retire peacefully because the system has been arranged.

In our column "10 Models of Corporate Control", there are two sections that specifically analyze the control and inheritance mechanism of the Alibaba partnership system.