Jack Ma, or Ma Yun (Chinese: 马云; pinyin: Mǎ Yún; [mà y̌n]; born 10 September 1964), is a
Chinese business magnate, investor, politician, and philanthropist. He is the
co-founder and former executive chairman of Alibaba Group, a multinational technology
conglomerate. Ma is a strong proponent of an open and market-driven economy.
A prominent business leader, 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, with Forbes ranking him 21st on its
"World's Most Powerful People" list. He also serves as a role
model for startup businesses. In
2017, Ma was ranked second in the annual "World's 50 Greatest
Leaders" list by Fortune. In
September 2018, he announced that he would retire from Alibaba and pursue educational
work, philanthropy, and environmental causes; the following
year, Daniel Zhang succeeded
him as executive chairman.
As of January 2020, Ma is China's
richest man, with a net worth of
$44.3 billion, as well as one of the wealthiest people in the world, ranked
20th by Bloomberg
Billionaires Index and Forbes. 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.
Early life and education
Jack Ma was born Ma Yun 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. For nine years, Ma would ride 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.
Later in his youth, Ma struggled attending college. The Chinese
entrance exams are held only once a year and Ma took four 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. While
at school, Ma was head of the student council. After graduation, he became
a lecturer in English and international trade at Hangzhou Dianzi
University. He also applied ten times to Harvard Business
School and got rejected each time.
Business career
Jack Ma on the future of online
trade and globalization at the World Economic Forum 2017
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 1994, Ma heard about the Internet and also started his first
company [21] Hangzhou Haibo Translation
Agency. In early 1995, he went to the US with his friends, who helped introduce
him to the Internet. 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. 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 May 10, 1995, they registered the domain chinapages.com
in the United States. Within three years, the company had made 5,000,000
Chinese Yuan 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". 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.
Jack Ma at 2007 China Trust
Global Leaders Forum
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 gathering
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 the full $25 billion, the largest initial
public offering in US financial history. 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.
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 interest in
the country. 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. 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.
Ma announced on 10 September 2018 that he would step down as
executive chairman of Alibaba Group Holding in the coming year. Ma denied
reports that he was forced to step aside by the Chinese government and
stated that he wants to focus on philanthropy through his foundation. Daniel Zhang would then lead the way
ahead for Alibaba as the current executive chairman.
Entertainment career
In 2017, Ma made his acting debut with his first kung fu short film Gong Shou Dao. It was filmed in
collaboration with the Double 11 Shopping Carnival Singles' Day. In the same year, he also
participated in a singing festival and performed dances during Alibaba's 18th
anniversary party.[35][36][37]
Awards and honours
·
In 2004, Ma was honoured as one of the "Top 10 Economic
Personalities of the Year" by China Central
Television (CCTV).
·
In Sep 2005, the World Economic Forum selected
Ma as a "Young Global Leader".
·
Fortune also selected him as one of the "25 Most Powerful
Businessperson in Asia" in 2005.
·
In 2008, Barron's featured
him as one of the 30 "World's Best CEOs"
·
In May 2009, Time magazine listed Ma as one of the
world's 100 most powerful people. In reporting Ma's accomplishments, Adi
Ignatius, former Time senior editor and editor-in-chief of
the Harvard Business
Review, noted that "the Chinese Internet entrepreneur is
soft-spoken and elf-like — and he speaks really good English" and remarked
that "Taobao.com, Mr. Ma's consumer-auction website, conquered eBay in
China." He was also included in this list in 2014.
·
BusinessWeek chose him as one of China's Most Powerful People.
·
Forbes China also selected him as one of the Top 10 Most Respected
Entrepreneurs in China by in 2009. Ma received the 2009 CCTV Economic Person of
the Year: Business Leaders of the Decade Award.
·
In 2010, Ma was selected by Forbes Asia as one of Asia's Heroes
of Philanthropy for his contribution to disaster relief and poverty.
·
In 2011 it was announced that one of his companies had gained
control of Alipay, formerly a subsidiary of Alibaba Group, so as to
"comply with Chinese law governing payment companies in order to secure a
license to continue operating Alipay.
·
Numerous analysts reported that Ma sold Alipay to himself
below market value without
notifying the board of Alibaba Group or the other major owners
Yahoo and Softbank, while Ma stated that Alibaba Group's
board of directors were aware of the transaction. The ownership dispute was
resolved by Alibaba Group, Yahoo! and Softbank in July 2011.
·
Ma was awarded an honorary doctoral degree by the Hong
Kong University of Science and Technology in November 2013.
·
Ma is a board member of Japan's SoftBank and China's Huayi Brothers Media Corporation. He
became a trustee of The Nature
Conservancy's China program in 2009 and joined its global board of
directors in April 2010.
·
In 2013, he became chairman of the board for The Nature
Conservancy's China Program; this was one day after he stepped down from
Alibaba as company CEO.
·
In 2014, he was ranked as the 30th most powerful person in the
world in an annual ranking published by Forbes.
·
In 2015, Asian Award honoured him with the Entrepreneur of the
Year award.
·
In 2017, Fortune ranked
Ma second on its World's 50 Greatest Leaders list.
·
In 2017, a KPMG survey ranked Ma
third in global tech innovation visionary survey.
·
In October 2017, Ma was given an honorary degree of Doctor of
Science in Technopreneurship from De La Salle
University Manila, Philippines.
·
In May 2018, Ma was given an honorary degree of Doctor of Social
Sciences honoris causa in recognition of his contributions to
technology, society and the world by University of Hong Kong.
·
In May 2018, Ma received an honorable doctoral degree from
professors Yaakov Frenkel and Yaron Oz at the Tel Aviv University in Tel Aviv,
Israel.
·
In May 2019, Ma and other 16 influential global figures were
appointed by UN Secretary-General Guterres as the new advocates for sustainable
development goals.
Views
At the annual general meeting of shareholders for Alibaba.com in
May 2010, Ma announced Alibaba Group would begin in 2010 to earmark 0.3% of
annual revenue to environmental protection, particularly on water and
air-quality improvement projects. Of the future of Alibaba, he has said,
"our challenge is to help more people to make healthy money, 'sustainable
money', money that is not only good for themselves but also good for the
society. That's the transformation we are aiming to make."
In November 2018, the People's Daily identified Ma as a
member of the Communist Party of
China, something which surprised observers.
Ma received international criticism after he publicly endorsed
the Chinese work practice known as the 996 working hour
system.
Philanthropy
Jack Ma is the founder of the Jack Ma Foundation, a
philanthropic organization focused on improving education, the environment and
public health.
In 2008, Alibaba donated $808,000 to victims of the Sichuan
earthquake. In 2009 Jack Ma became a trustee of The Nature
Conservancy's China program, and in 2010 he joined the global Board
of Directors of the organization.
In 2015, Alibaba launched a non-profit organization, Alibaba
Hong Kong Young Entrepreneurs Foundation, which support Hong Kong entrepreneurs
to help them grow their businesses. During the same year, the company
funded the rebuilding of 1,000 houses damaged by the earthquake-hit in Nepal,
and raised money for another 9,000.
In 2019 Jack Ma's foundation started the Netpreneur initiative
that grants ten prizes of one million dollars each to ten African entrepreneurs
per year and launched a fund with 14.6 million dollars to develop
education in Tibet.
In 2019, Forbes named Ma in its list of
"Asia’s 2019 Heroes of Philanthropy" and awarded him the Malcolm S.
Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award for his work supporting underprivileged
communities in China, Africa, Australia, and the Middle East.
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