Jack Ma, board chairman of Alibaba Group, announced in an internal email today that the company established a partnership system three years ago in order to build a new organizational model. 18 founders of the e-commerce giant resigned their founder status in 2010 to give way for the establishment of the system. It was reported that Alibaba planned to go public in Hong Kong where the dual-class stock structure isn’t allowed. The partnership system is a countermeasure for Jack Ma and top management to maintain control of the company after Alibaba is listed on Hong Kong, because the structure will allow the partner team led by Jack Ma to nominate over half of board members. Ma disclosed that the company now has 28 partners.