E-commerce giant CEO Jack Ma said his employees will not receive traditional Chinese New Year gifts because 2014 had not been "exceptional" for the company, despite its record breaking Wall Street IPO, media report.
Traditionally, bosses of Chinese companies hand out "hang bao" – red packets filled with cash – to their workers ahead of the holiday to wish them luck.
Although Alibaba staff will still receive a bonus, they will not take home hang bao due to lack of any outstanding results, Ma said.
Alibaba is often described as the Chinese version of eBay. Its flagship platform TaoBao is estimated to hold more than 90 percent of the domestic market of consumer-to-consumer transactions. In September 2014, AliBaba raised more than $21 billion during its IPO.
