Mǎ Yún, better known as Jack Ma, is the co-founder of the international e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba Group. He served as the company's CEO until September 2019 when he passed the role to economist and former president of Tmall, Daniel Zhang.
Jack Ma was born in 1964 in the city of Hangzhou, capital of Chekyon Province, People's Republic of China. As a teenager, he began to study the English language while driving tourists around the city for free.
In one of his tours, a tourist from the US suggested to Mǎ Yún that he change his name, as he found it very difficult to pronounce. From then on, the tour guide used the Americanized nickname Jack Ma.
His student and professional life, however, was not easy. According to Startse blog, he was rejected several times in elementary school, elementary school and college entrance exams. In ten attempts, Harvard turned him down. Furthermore, he failed for jobs in the police and KFC.
Despite this, in the 1990s, Jack Ma graduated in English at Hangzhou Normal University and went on to teach the language at Hangzhou Teacher's College. And in the 2000s, he finally managed to get his MBA from Cheung Kong University. At this same time, he started to found Alibaba Group.
JACK MA AND HIS PATH AT THE ALIBABA GROUP
In 1994, on a trip to the USA, Jack Ma discovered the internet, which activated his mind on the types of businesses that could be done from the web. Over the course of five years, he tested possibilities such as informational websites and website building services, but was unsuccessful.
As early as 1999, after resigning from a job at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Trade, he founded the Alibaba e-commerce, based in his apartment. In Business To Business (B2B) mode, the Alibaba website specializes in business-to-business sales, connecting Chinese factories to buyers from various countries. In the following decades, Alibaba would become one of the biggest e-commerce powers in the world.
Over time, Jack Ma launched other e-commerce sites and technologies, including the following:
- AliExpress: B2B and B2C online for consumers and businesses outside of China;
- Taobao: B2B and B2C online for Chinese consumers and businesses;
- Tmall: retail site for Chinese consumers;
- AliPay: digital wallet, ie a mobile payment platform;
- alimama: Digital Marketing tool for Alibaba's e-commerces;
- Alibaba Cloud: China's leading cloud computing service;
- Ant Financial: financial services company;
- shipping: ultra high-tech supermarket chain.
Today, all these companies, as well as the Alibaba website, are part of the Alibaba Group.
THE POWER OF THE ALIBABA GROUP TODAY
Compliant Suno blog data, upon listing on the New York Stock Exchange, Alibaba received the largest initial public offering in US financial history, valued at $25 billion. And according to Exam portal article, Alibaba Group was worth $850 billion in 2020.
Today, the Alibaba Group founded by Jack Ma just over 20 years ago accounts for over 60% of China's e-commerce. And Mǎ Yún, in turn, figures in the Forbes list among the 70 richest people in the world with a fortune of $24,7 billion.
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