Alibaba`s Jack Ma donates $2.7 billion last year

Alibaba Group Chairman Jack Ma has donated 2.7 billion U.S. dollars last year to become charity king.

According to the Top 100 Chinese Philanthropists list announced by Beijing Normal University, Jack Ma donated 16.9 billion yuan (2.7 billion dollars) to rank No. 1 donator in China, said China News Service on Saturday.

Ma donated by establishing a charitable trust based on Alibaba share`s stock option. The trust uses its funds for charity activities in environment protection, education, medical and sanitation.

Ma has risen as China`s richest person after Alibaba listed its shares in the New York Stock Exchange in September last year to post the largest-ever IPO in the U.S. He said money is more difficult to use than to earn and added he will engage in a charity competition with Bill Gates, Microsoft founder, a philanthropist and the world`s richest person.

To criticism that his charitable money is going overseas, he said most of his donation will be used within China. "We were donating assets from a foreign-listed company to ensure we could start as soon as possible we registered our fund outside of China, and as soon as the mechanisms in China are set up we will begin work," he said.