Taobao shop’s clothing taken offline for using Jack Ma lookalike

A Taobao shop selling men’s fashion has had its products removed from the online shelves after features a model bearing a strong resemblance to one of China’s most famous faces.
Ahead of Alibaba’s Singles Day shopping bonanza, the shop employed a Jack Ma lookalike to show off its threads. The distinctive-looking Ma is, of course, the founder of the Chinese e-commerce giant which operates Taobao.
Adding an extra layer to this story, the shop’s name is “Huateng Legendary Flagship Store” (化腾传奇旗舰店). Huateng is the given name of Ma Huateng, aka Pony Ma, the CEO of Chinese tech giant Tencent who shares a surname with Jack Ma and competes with him each year for the title of China’s richest man.



Jack Ma recently retired as Alibaba’s chairman. Photos from the shop prompted netizens to joke that he had found a new career as a Taobao model.
Previous Ma lookalikes have been employed as neighborhood security guards, roadside mushroom salesmen, and grocery store owners.

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