Within 48 hours of announcing he would step down from the helm of Alibaba, the ecommerce group he founded in his Hangzhou apartment 19 years ago, Jack Ma was rubbing shoulders with world leaders in Vladivostok.

With the cameras trained on China and Russia’s leaders, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, Mr Ma was playing an ambassadorial role that is part Chinese soft power, part promotion of the company. He already spends 40 per cent of the year travelling, signing deals such as this week’s venture with Mail.ru, the Russian internet group.

Relinquishing the chairmanship next September will leave him free, in theory, to spend more time on the road. But few believe Mr Ma, who remains a lifetime member of Alibaba’s powerful 36-member partnership, will not continue pulling the strings of the nearly $430bn company.