Jack Ma | |||
|---|---|---|---|
马云 | |||
_(cropped).jpg) Ma in 2018 | |||
| Born | 10 September 1964 | ||
| Education | Hangzhou Normal University (BA) | ||
| Occupation |
| ||
| Known for | Co-founder and former executive chairman of Alibaba Group | ||
| Net worth |  US$50.7 billion (As of 25 June 2021)[1] | ||
| Title | Co-founder of Yunfeng Capital | ||
| Political party | Communist Party of China[2] | ||
| Spouse(s) | Zhang Ying | ||
| Children | 3 | ||
| Chinese name | |||
| Simplified Chinese | 马云 | ||
| Traditional Chinese | 馬雲 | ||
| |||
Jack Ma Yun[a] (Chinese: 马云; [mà y̌n]; born 10 September 1964) is a Chinese business magnate, investor and philanthropist. He is the co-founder and former executive chairman of Alibaba Group, a multinational, technology conglomerate. In addition, he co-founded Yunfeng Capital, a private equity firm. Ma is a strong proponent of an open and market-driven economy.
In 2017, Ma was ranked second in the annual "World's 50 Greatest Leaders" list by Fortune.[3] He has widely been considered as an informal global ambassador for Chinese business, and is an influential figure for the community of startup businesses.[4] In September 2018, he announced that he would retire from Alibaba and pursue educational work, philanthropy, and environmental causes;[5][6][7][8] the following year, Daniel Zhang succeeded him as executive chairman.[9]
As of April 2021, with a net worth of $51.5 billion, Ma is the third-wealthiest person in China (after Zhong Shanshan and Ma Huateng), as well as one of the wealthiest people in the world, ranked 26th by Bloomberg Billionaires Index.[1] In 2019, Forbes named Ma in its list of "Asia's 2019 Heroes of Philanthropy" for his work supporting underprivileged communities in China, Africa, Australia, and the Middle East.[5][10]
Early life and education[edit]
Jack Ma was born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. He began studying English at a young age by conversing with English-speakers at Hangzhou International Hotel. For nine years, Ma would ride 27 km (17 miles) on his bicycle to give tourists tours of the area to practice his English. He became pen pals with one of those foreigners, who nicknamed him "Jack" because he found it hard to pronounce his Chinese name.[11]
Later in his youth, Ma struggled attending college. Ma failed the entrance exam for the Hangzhou Teachers College twice as his weak point was mathematics.[12] The Chinese entrance exams, held annually, took Ma three years to pass. Ma attended Hangzhou Teacher's Institute (currently known as Hangzhou Normal University) and graduated in 1988 with a Bachelor of Arts in English.[13][14] While at school, Ma was head of the student council.[15] After graduation, he became a lecturer in English and international trade at Hangzhou Dianzi University. He also claims to have applied ten times to Harvard Business School and got rejected each time.[16]
Business career[edit]
Early career[edit]
According to Ma's autobiographical speech,[17] after graduating from Hangzhou Normal University in 1988, Ma applied for 30 different odd jobs and was rejected by every one. "I went for a job with the police; they said, 'you're no good'", Ma told interviewer Charlie Rose. "I even went to KFC when it came to my city. Twenty-four people went for the job. Twenty-three were accepted. I was the only guy [rejected]...".[18] During this period, China was in its first decade of Deng Xiaoping's Chinese economic reform.
In 1994, Ma heard about the Internet and also started his first company,[19] Hangzhou Haibo Translation Agency (杭州海波翻譯社). In early 1995, he went to the US on behalf of the municipal government with colleagues who had helped introduce him to the Internet.[19] Although he found information related to beer from many countries, he was surprised to find none from China. He also tried to search for general information about China and again was surprised to find none. So he and his friend created an "ugly" website related to China.[20] He launched the website at 9:40 AM, and by 12:30 PM he had received emails from some Chinese investors wishing to know about him. This was when Ma realized that the Internet had something great to offer. In April 1995, Ma and He Yibing (a computer teacher) opened the first office for China Pages, and Ma started their second company. On 10 May 1995, they registered the domain chinapages.com in the United States. Within three years, the company had made 5,000,000 Renminbi which at the time was equivalent to US$800,000.
Ma began building websites for Chinese companies with the help of friends in the US. He said that "The day we got connected to the Web, I invited friends and TV people over to my house", and on a very slow dial-up connection, "we waited three and a half hours and got half a page", he recalled. "We drank, watched TV and played cards, waiting. But I was so proud. I proved the Internet existed".[21] At a conference in 2010, Ma revealed that he has never actually written a line of code nor made one sale to a customer. He acquired a computer for the first time at the age of 33.[22]
From 1998 to 1999, Ma headed an information technology company established by the China International Electronic Commerce Center, a department of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation. In 1999, he quit and returned to Hangzhou with his team to found Alibaba, a China-based business-to-business marketplace site in his apartment with a group of 18 friends.[23] He started a new round of venture development with 500,000 yuan.
In October 1999 and January 2000, Alibaba won a total of a $25 million foreign venture capital investment from Goldman Sachs and Softbank.[19] The program was expected to improve the domestic e-commerce market and perfect an e-commerce platform for Chinese enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to address World Trade Organization (WTO) challenges. Alibaba became profitable three years later. Ma wanted to improve the global e-commerce system and from 2003 he founded Taobao Marketplace, Alipay, Ali Mama and Lynx. After the rapid rise of Taobao, eBay offered to purchase the company. However, Ma rejected their offer, instead gathering support from Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang with a $1 billion investment.
Alibaba IPO[edit]
In September 2014 it was reported Alibaba was raising over $25 billion in an initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange.[24] Alibaba became one of the most valuable technology companies in the world after raising the full $25 billion, the largest initial public offering in US financial history.
Chair of Alibaba Group[edit]
Ma served as executive chairman of Alibaba Group, which is a holding company with nine major subsidiaries: Alibaba.com, Taobao Marketplace, Tmall, eTao, Alibaba Cloud Computing, Juhuasuan, 1688.com, AliExpress.com, and Alipay. In November 2012, Alibaba's online transaction volume exceeded one trillion yuan. As of 2016, Ma is the owner of Château de Sours in Bordeaux, Chateau Guerry in Côtes de Bourg and Château Perenne in Blaye, Côtes de Bordeaux.[25]
On 9 January 2017, Ma met with United States President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower, to discuss the potential of 1 million job openings in the following five years through Alibaba's business interests in the United States of America.[26] On 8 September 2017, to celebrate Alibaba's 18th year of establishment, Ma appeared on stage and gave a Michael-Jackson-inspired performance. He performed part of "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" at the 2009 Alibaba birthday event while dressed as a heavy metal lead singer.[27] In the same month, Ma also partnered with Sir Li Ka-shing in a joint venture to offer a digital wallet service in Hong Kong.[28]
Ma announced on 10 September 2018 that he would step down as executive chairman of Alibaba Group Holding in the coming year.[29] Ma denied reports that he was forced to step aside by the Chinese government[30] and stated that he wants to focus on philanthropy through his foundation.[31] Daniel Zhang would then lead Alibaba as the current executive chairman.[32]
Ma officially stepped down from the board of Alibaba on September 30, 2019.[
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