Background

Jack Ma, also known by his Chinese name Ma Yun, was born on September 10, 1964, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China, to Ma Laifa and Cui Wencai. Ma comes from a humble background.

He was raised along with an elder brother and a younger sister during the rise of communist China and its isolation from the Western regions. His parents were traditional Musicians-Storytellers and they didn’t make enough to be even considered as a middle class during those days.

Education

Ma expressed an interest in learning English from a young age, studying the language, and practicing by conversing with English-speakers at the Hangzhou International Hotel. The youngster even started guiding tourists in visiting sight-seeing places around the city. The motive was to spend more time with native English speakers in a bid to gain a command over the language. It is one of these foreigners he befriended and later become pen pals with that gave him the nickname Jack.

Ma failed the entrance exam for the Hangzhou Teachers College twice. (His weak point was mathematics.) He was admitted on the third try, in 1984. Jack graduated from the institution in the year 1988 and became an English teacher, where he was only paid a very small wage. He also applied ten times to Harvard Business School and got rejected each time.

Career

After graduation, Ma became a lecturer in English and international trade at Hangzhou Dianzi University. From 1988 to 1993 Ma taught English there. Ma was a natural with his students and loved his job - though he only made $12 a month. He also has stated that he had applied to thirty different jobs, and was rejected by all of them. When KFC first came to China, 24 people applied for manager positions, and 23 were accepted. Ma was the only person who applied that was not accepted for the job. He also one of the 5 applicants to a job in the Police force and was the only one getting rejected

In 1994, he founded his first company, the Haibo Translation Agency, which provided English translation and interpretation. On a trip to the United States with friends in 1995, Ma was introduced to the internet. After not finding any information on beer from China, despite this information being available on the beer of many other countries, Ma and a friend created a website related to China and launched their own website.

On his return, he founded China Pages, which created Web sites for Chinese businesses and was one of China’s first Internet companies. Within a few hours, he had reportedly received several emails from Chinese investors wanting to know more about him. The site was very successful, and Jack knew he’s found his niche. He left the company two years later, however, partly because of strong competition from the communications company Hangzhou Telecom, which had founded a rival company, Chinesepage. Realizing the potential of the internet, Ma and computer teacher He Yibing opened the first office for China Pages, starting Ma's second company.

From 1998 to 1999, Ma was the head of an information technology company established by the China International Electronic Commerce Center, a department of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, but quit in 1999 to return to Hangzhou. He felt, however, that if he remained with the government, he would miss out on the economic opportunities that the Internet was bringing.

Ma persuaded his team at the ministry to go back to Hangzhou with him. Back in Hangzhou, Ma founded Alibaba, a China-based business-to-business marketplace site, in his apartment with the help of eighteen of his friends. Ma was convinced that the small-business-to-small-business Internet market had much greater potential for growth than the business-to-consumer Internet market had. Small businesses paid a membership fee to be certified as trustworthy sellers on Alibaba, with a greater fee being charged to businesses that wished to sell to customers outside China. In October 1999 and January 2000, Alibaba won a total of $25 million foreign venture capital investment.

Growth was rapid; in 2005 Alibaba attracted the attention of the American Internet portal Yahoo!, which bought a 40 percent stake, and in 2007 Alibaba.com raised $1.7 billion dollars in its initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong. The company’s business soon expanded to around 240 different nations. Jack next tried to venture into e-business, which he could foresee as a great money-making scheme of the 21st century. In this regard, he also founded many firms such as Taobao, Lynx, and Ali Mama.

Taobao started trending over the internet as a top e-commerce website and even grabbed the attention of the giant of the business, e-bay, which was keen on acquiring the firm. However, Ma was disinterested in entering into any kind of acquisition deal with the firm. Taobao also grabbed the attention of another famous internet shark, Yahoo. The firm invested $1 Billion in Jack’s venture.

Jack had become the subject of criticism in 2007, after many people from across the world protested that the firm Alibaba raised huge profits through sales of animal products, through its portal. On behalf of his firm Alibaba and the interest of nature lovers across the world, Jack decided not to sell products made of Shark flesh through the online portal.

In 2011 Ma announced that Taobao would split into three companies: Taobao Marketplace, where individuals could buy and sell goods; Taobao Mall, an online shopping portal; and eTao, a shopping-related search engine. In September 2014 the Alibaba Group debuted an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange that raised $21.8 billion. That IPO was the largest ever in the United States and gave the company a market value of $168 billion, the highest such value in IPO history at that time for any Internet company.

In January of 2013, Jack Ma announced his unexpected resignation as chief executive officer (CEO) of Alibaba Group in May of the same year. He stated that he would still be working for the company as Executive Chairman, saying he was too old for the Internet now. His resignation has raised many questions regarding his health and the real reason he has decided to retire at the young age of 48. In September 2018 it was announced that Ma would step down as chairman of Alibaba the following year, though he would remain on the board.

Achievements

• 

  Jack is primarily known for being the founder of the e-commerce giant Alibaba, which is one of the top websites in the business. This firm, which is also a stiff competitor to other famous websites such as eBay, has helped Ma become the richest man in China. Over the last 15 years, Alibaba has grown exponentially. Today the company is the largest commerce site in the world, bigger than eBay and Amazo combined.
  
  China Central Television had mentioned Jack in its Top 10 Business Leaders of the Year list, compiled for the year 2004. He was named the Businessperson of the Year by the Business Week magazine and also featured in the list of 25 Most Powerful Businesspeople in Asia, in 2005. 2009 was an eventful year in Jack’s life; he secured a spot in Time magazine’s list of World’s 100 Most Influential People. The internet giant also received the 2009 CCTV Economic Person of the Year: Business Leader of the Decade Award.
  
  As of June 2020, Ma is the second-wealthiest person in China, with a net worth of $44 billion.

Religion

Ma says he is not a very religious person but is very interested in religion. "I love Christianity. I love Buddhism. I love Taoism." For him, Buddhism is more of a culture, as it has been embedded into the Chinese lifestyle for hundreds of years.

Views

After Ma left his CEO position, he devoted himself to philanthropy. In 2014 he set up the Jack Ma Foundation. Since its founding, the Jack Ma Foundation by itself has already distributed or pledged at least $300 million, according to figures from Alibaba. The foundation pledged about $14 million to protect wetlands in Hangzhou. The majority of funding for its projects comes from the foundation, however, it does accept small outside donations to help in some projects. During the coronavirus pandemic, his foundation donated millions of masks and other medical supplies to the United States, Europe, and Africa.

Aside from China, the foundation has helped causes in Africa, Australia, and the Middle East. Ma wants his foundation to have maximum impact. Ma also wants to encourage the spirit of philanthropy in others. Ma says he also hopes to do more to support women’s causes.

While he still remains actively involved with the company as its executive chairman and one of the largest shareholders, Jack Ma stepped down as CEO of Alibaba in 2013 to focus more on the pollution in China that has taken multiple lives of the young people he’s known.

Quotations: "When people think too highly of you, you have the responsibility to calm down and be yourself."

"If you want to win in the 21st century, yo have to empower others, making sure other people are better than you are. Then you will be successful."

"30% of all people will never believe you. Do not allow your colleagues and employees to work for you. Instead, let them work for a common goal."

"Never give up. Today is hard, tomorrow will be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine."

"I don’t want to be liked. I want to be respected."

"The very important thing you should have is patience."

"Your attitude is more important than your capabilities. Similarly, your decision is more important than your capabilities."

"Customer first, employees second, and investor third."

"You should learn from your competitor but never copy. Copy and you die."

"Once in your life, try something. Work hard at something. Try to change. Nothing bad can happen."

Personality

Jack Ma is not ashamed to admit that he knows little about technology. Coming from the CEO of a tech company, this is quite surprising. He also goes on to admit that he cannot write code and knows as much about the internet as any "regular" person.

When asked what has inspired Ma to become interested in the environment, he says that there are many. He says the river he used to swim in as a child now only comes up to his ankles. His father in law recently died of cancer, and this has led the entire family to become much more health and environmental conscience.

Ma thinks differently from many people and is not afraid to make this known. He says that consumers are the most important factor in making his company run, then come the employees, and lastly are the shareholders. He explains further that the consumers are the most important, as they make his company run. Employees come next as they are loyal to the company and work hard for success. Shareholders are last, as they are taking part completely for their own good, and they are never fully stable, they change all the time.

Ma makes sure to involve employees in decisions and changes in the company; he says that it is important for employees to feel that they hold a valued position in the company.

As a kid, Ma liked collecting crickets and making them fight, and was able to distinguish the size and type of cricket just by the sound it made. Ma is a fan of martial arts and has sparred against Jet Li and others in a short promotional film. Ma also owns a vineyard in France.

Interests

• poker, meditating

• Sport & Clubs

  martial arts

Connections

Ma has largely kept his family life out of the spotlight. Ma met his wife Zhang Ying while they were both studying at Hangzhou Teacher’s Institute. They married in the late 1980s, and have three children together.

Father:

Ma Laifa

Mother:

Cui Wencai

Spouse:

Zhang Ying

Ma likes to mention that Zhang Ying is the reason behind his success. She quit her job to give all of her attention to her family. Ma says that Ying not only helps with the family, but she also helps him with his career.

Daughter:

Ma Yuanbao

Son:

Ma Yuankun

Acquaintance:

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Jack Ma is a fan of the Terminator franchise. He actually met the Terminator star, Arnold Schwarzenegger, in 2010 who presented Jack Ma with black sunglasses and leather jacket to complete the Terminator look when the actor was in China.

Acquaintance:

Donald Trump

In 2017, Ma made headlines after meeting President Donald Trump. Despite Trump's protectionist attitude towards trade, Ma said China and the United States were not about to be drawn into a trade war. "Give Trump some time. He's open-minded," Ma told a panel at Davos in January.