There are few greater success stories in China than Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba.

The 51-year-old former English lecturer rose to be China's richest man in only a decade.

And although he was relegated to second behind property magnate Wang Jianlin, president of Dalian Wanda Group, on the Forbes 2015 rich list published in October, his personal wealth still amounted to a hefty $21.4 billion (19.7 billion euros).

Virtually everyone in China at some time has used the company's Taobao retail platform - China's equivalent of eBay and described by The Economist magazine as "the world's greatest bazaar".