(Yicai Global) Jan. 16 --  Jack Ma and his friends have opened a bar in Hangzhou, the leafy South China lakeside city where Alibaba Group Holding is based, said the company founder himself, who is set to retire as executive chairman in September.  

A video circulating on social media shows many celebrities attending the opening party and Ma even singing on stage. The HHB Music Bar held its opening ceremony on Jan. 6. "I asked some friends to open a bar with me," Ma said in the video, yet registration data show that the shareholders of the bar's owner Hangzhou Mars Entertainment Management are all executives of the tech and e-commerce titan, but do not include Ma. 

Bar staff confirmed shareholders are all Alibaba executives, and that Ma was not among them. Maybe Ma is just the bar's mascot.