When something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
Alibaba founder Jack Ma will not be funding the education of an 8-year-old lookalike after all, despite reports online earlier this week indicating that he would.
“The news is completely false,” an Alibaba spokesperson reportedly told Fortune magazine.
On Monday, Xinhua reported that Mr Ma had pledged to provide financial support for the education of his young doppelganger from primary school to university.
The boy, Fan Xiaoqin, is affectionaly known as “mini Jack Ma”. Photos of him went viral when Chinese netizens noticed that he bore a striking resemblance to the self-made billionaire.
China Daily reported that Fan’s family circumstances are unfortunate – his mother has polio, his father a missing leg and his grandma, Alzheimer’s disease.
Mr Ma, who today is one of China’s wealthiest individuals, is a former English teacher whose application to Harvard was rejected multiple times. He founded e-commerce giant Alibaba in 1999.
This year, sales at the company’s annual Singles Day online shopping event on Nov 11 topped 120 billion yuan (S$24.8 billion).
According to Forbes, Mr Ma’s net worth is estimated to be US$26.7 billion (S$37.75 billion).
seanyap@sph.com.sg
