Jack Ma: Ma Yun (Chinese: Born 10 September 1964), Known Professionally As Jack Ma, Is A Chinese

William Eduard M.
Chua Grade 9 - Mendeleev
Jack Ma
Ma Yun (Chinese: born 10 September 1964), known professionally as Jack Ma, is a Chinese
business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is the co-founder and executive chairman
of Alibaba Group, a multinational technology conglomerate. As of March 2018, he is one of China's
richest men with a net worth of US$42.4 billion, as well as one of the wealthiest people in the world.
Ma is seen as a global ambassador for Chinese business and as such is frequently listed as one of
the world's most powerful people by Forbes. In 2017, he was ranked 2nd in the annual "World's 50
Greatest Leaders" list by Fortune.
Early life and education
Ma was born on 10 September 1964 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. He began studying English at a
young age by conversing with English-speakers at Hangzhou international hotel. He would ride 70
miles on his bicycle to give tourists tours of the area to practice his English for nine years. He
became pen pals with one of those foreigners, who nicknamed him "Jack" because he found it hard
to pronounce his Chinese name.
Later in his youth, Ma struggled attending college. The Chinese entrance exams are held only once
a year and it took Ma four years to pass. After that, Ma attended Hangzhou Teacher's Institute
(currently known as Hangzhou Normal University) and graduated in 1988 with a B.A. in
English. While at school, Ma was head of the student council. After graduation, he became a lecturer
of English and International Trade at Hangzhou Dianzi University. He later enrolled at Beijing-
based Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business and graduated in 2006.
Business career
Jack Ma applied for 30 different jobs and got rejected by all. "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...". In
addition to this, he applied 10 times to Harvard Business School (HBS) and got rejected.
In 1994, Ma heard about the Internet. In early 1995, he went to the US with his friends, who helped
introduce him to the Internet. During his first encounter he searched the word "beer". Although he
found information related to beer from many countries, he was surprised to find none from China.
Furthermore, he 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. 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 is when Ma realized that the Internet had something great to offer. In April 1995, Ma,
his wife, and a friend raised US$ 20,000 and started their first company. Their company was
dedicated to creating websites for companies. He named their company "China Yellow Pages."
Within three years, his company had made 5,000,000 Chinese Yuan which was equivalent to
US$800,000 at the time.
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." 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.
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. He
started a new round of venture development with 500,000 yuan.
In October 1999 and January 2000, Alibaba twice won a total of a $25 million foreign venture capital
investment. 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. 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 garnering support from Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang with a $1 billion
investment.
In September 2014 it was reported Alibaba was raising over $25 billion in an initial public
offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange. Alibaba became one of the most valuable
technology companies in the world after raising $25 billion, the largest initial public offering in US
financial history. Ma now serves 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. Ma has often been invited to lecture at Peking
University. 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.
On 9 January 2017, Ma talked with United States President Donald Trump at Trump Tower about
how to create 1 million American jobs in five years. On 8 September 2017, to celebrate Alibaba's
18th year of establishment, Ma appeared on stage and turned the event into a 'Thriller' with a
Michael Jackson inspired performance. This isn't the first time Ma has performed at an Alibaba
event. He performed part of "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" at the 2009 event while dressed as
heavy metal lead singer. In the same month, Jack Ma also partnered with Sir Li Ka-shing in a joint
venture to offer a digital wallet service in Hong Kong.

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William Eduard M.

Chua Grade 9 - Mendeleev

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