In an job ad that makes The Rose of Tralee look like a Gloria Steinem feminist screed, Chinese e-commerce giant said it was looking for candidates who looked like the Japanese porn star Sola Aoi to motivate "code monkeys" who were down in the dumps.

Alibaba insisted the ad was meant to be a joke, a humorous attempt at recruiting someone to act as a cheerleader for geeky programmers, but social media commentators did not think so, and the commercial was widely condemned as offensive.

The reference to the Japanese adult star Sora Aoi, who is huge in China and often tweets messages aimed at reducing tensions between Japan and China, has been removed and Alibaba says that both men and women can apply for the post.

The ad still says that it likes women who are like the South Korean actress Song Hye-kyo, but also says that men who look a bit like an “alien old man” can also apply, above a cartoon of Jack Ma, the company’s founder and executive chairman, who met President Michael D Higgins during his visit to Hangzhou last December and whose looks are unorthodox.

As in many tech companies, women are under-represented on the board of Alibaba, accounting for three of its 10 members.