Jim Cramer Contrasts Jack Ma With Elon Musk

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA recently announced to employees that they won’t be receiving red envelopes filled with money, known as hongbao, this Lunar New Year holiday.

In a recent post on his microblog, Alibaba founder Jack Ma explained that the reason for this is that the company has not had ‘exceptional results’ and no ‘special surprises.'  He also urged employees to not be lost in ‘illusory fame’ or views of external world, but to self-evaluate.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer was recently seen opining on Ma’s statement and comparing him to Tesla Motors Inc TSLA founder Elon Musk.

“I didn’t like this other line, ‘We are far from being as strong as the outsiders might think.' Does that refer to the chumps who bought it on the IPO? No, they are not chumps because the stock is still up, but I read that and I think, I want to contrast that with Elon Musk, who said we are much stronger than you think. Here is a guy who comes out and says we are not as strong as you think.”

Cramer also remarked that “He [Jack Ma] has an existential crisis right in front of him.”

China Is Weak

“Everybody in China is having bad numbers because China is weaker than we think. I mean, we can say that about Baidu,” Cramer said.

“The problem is that we have come to believe that China, so okay maybe they are not importing so much iron, maybe they are not importing as much steel, but domestic economy is better than expected.”