Alibaba’s founders are known as the shiba luohan, the Eighteen Arhats. A 2019 article in Hangzhou’s city news explains: “The Eighteen Arhats are the 18 people who founded Alibaba together at Hupan Garden in 1999.” They built the Alibaba website in Jack Ma’s home on that housing estate in Hangzhou.
Among the eighteen were Joe Tsai, Peng Lei and Dai Shan. Several of them later became partners of Alibaba.