Jack Ma, Co-Founder & Executive Chairman of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, has announced that he would be stepping down from the management of Alibaba.

Currently Jack Ma is of 54 years of age and he would like to retire to pursue philanthropy in education. He announced his retirement plan on the eve of teacher's day in China.

Jack Ma co-founded Alibaba in 1999 along with 17 others out of his apartment in Hangzhou. Today, his firm has grown up so well giving a tough competition to the similar businesses of Google and Amazon in the industry.

Though Alibaba faced challenges expanding outside China. It has expanded it's presence outside in the form of strategic investments in e-commerce and financial services firms across India and Southeast Asia.

Jack Ma's retirement doesn't come as a surprise since he had shared his philanthropy interests earlier in a couple of interviews as well. Inside Alibaba, he is referred to as "Teacher Ma". He had earlier expressed his love for teaching and wanted to focus more on Philanthropy. Even though he is stepping down from the board. He will remain as a mentor to the management team.