China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba (BABA) celebrated its 18th anniversary last week with a lavish party in Hangzhou, where it is headquartered.
At the center was founder and executive chairman Jack Ma, who turned the Sept. 8 annual party into a Michael Jackson-inspired dance off.
A video tweeted by Chinese business news outlet Yicai Global shows Ma enter the stage incognito, wearing a military style outfit and a mask in gold and silver. After breaking out a few moves to the iconic opening bars of “Billie Jean,” Ma removed his mask to cheers and applause in the auditorium.
A group of dancers in identical outfits then joined Ma onstage in a group dance, set to a medley of Jackson’s hits. The dancers were Alibaba employees, reports CNBC.
Jack Ma performs Michael Jackson dance on 2017 Alibaba Annual Party🤣 pic.twitter.com/TAThZbFxrc
— Yicai 第一财经 (@yicaichina) September 11, 2017
The tribute to the King of Pop isn’t the first Jack Ma musical number at an Alibaba celebration, according to CNBC. In 2009, he sang parts of the Lion King theme song “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” on stage dressed in a leather jacket, mohawk and noise ring.
Apart from turning 18, Alibaba has many other reasons to feel celebratory. Driven by a strong performance in cloud computing and e-commerce, its first-quarter revenue grew by 56% — beating analysts’ expectations. Meanwhile its stock price is up by over 81% this year.
