Alibaba CEO Ma predicts pain as internet transforms economy

Jack Ma, the CEO of Chinese retail giant Alibaba Group, has warned that the upcoming decades will be painful for the global economy as major transformations related to the internet take place.

During a speech at an entrepreneurship conference in Zhengzhou, Ma said that the rise of automation will lead to a necessity for an overhaul of education and training systems for employees across the globe.

"In the next 30 years, the world will see much more pain than happiness," the Alibaba chief said.

"Social conflicts in the next three decades will have an impact on all sorts of industries and walks of life."

"In the next 30 years, the world will see much more pain than happiness" Jack Ma

The New York-listed conglomerate began as an online retail marketplace before expanding into a vast network of operations, including several related to technological advances.

Ma also suggested that the executives of major firms could be replaced by robots over the coming decades

"30 years later, the Time Magazine cover for the best CEO of the year very likely will be a robot. It remembers better than you, it counts faster than you, and it won't be angry with competitors," Ma added.

The businessman was critical of traditional companies which refuse to adapt to the increased prominence of technology, saying that it was an essential part of business to embrace the internet.

Alibaba, like several other major firms, has invested heavily in the likes of cloud computing services, one of its fastest growing operations.