•
Founder of
Alibaba Jack Ma, is the founder and CEO
of Alibaba.com, and runs one of the
world's largest E- commerce
businesses.
Alibaba is China's, biggest online
commerce company. Its three main sites --
Taobao, Tmall and Alibaba.com -- have
hundreds of millions of users, and host
millions of merchants and businesses.
Alibaba raised $20billion in an IPO, in
September 2014, becoming one of the most
valuable tech companies in the world. 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.
•
Feature Story About
The Person Of The Week / TVI •
Jack
Ma •••••
Ma was born Ma Yun
in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China on
October 15, 1964. He told Charlie Rose
during an interview of his desire at an
early age to learn English and that he
rode his bike for 45 minutes each morning
in order to go to a nearby hotel and
converse with foreigners. He would guide
them around the city for free in order to
practice and perfect his English.
••••
He attended
Hangzhou Teacher's Institute (currently
known as Hangzhou Normal University) where
was elected student chairman. He graduated
in 1988 with a bachelor's degree in
English, and later became a lecturer in
English and International Trade at the
Hangzhou Dianzi Universit. He went on to
attend Beijing-based Cheung Kong Graduate
School of Business (CKGSB), founded in
2002 by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing,
graduating in 2006.
••••
Ma first started
building websites for Chinese companies
with the help of friends in the US. He has
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.... We drank,
watched TV and played cards, waiting. But
I was so proud. I proved (to my house
guests that) the Internet existed.
••••
In 1995, Ma founded
China Yellowpages, widely believed to be
China's first Internet-based company. 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.
••••
He founded Alibaba
in 1999, a China-based
business-to-business marketplace site
which currently serves more than 79
million members from more than 240
countries and territories. In September
2014, Alibaba was raised $20 billion in an
IPO. Ma now serves as Executive Chairman
of Alibaba Group, which is a holding
company with nine major subsidiaries
&endash; Alibaba.com, Taobao Marketplace,
Tmall, eTao, Alibaba Cloud Computing,
Juhuasuan, 1688.com, AliExpress.com and
Alipay.
///
02
TIMELINE
- JACK MA
•
1964 -
Jack Ma was born Ma
Yun on October 15, 1964 in Hangzhou,
Zhejiang Province, China. •
1980s -
He attended Teacher's
Institute Hangzhou and was elected student
chairman. •
1988 -
Graduated from
Hangzhou Teacher's Institute (known as
Normal University) with a bachelor's
degree in English. •
1995 -
Ma founded
China Yellowpages,
widely believed to be China's first
Internet-based company. •
1998 -
From 1998-1999, 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. •
1999 -
Jack Ma founded Alibaba in 1999, a
China-based business-to-business
marketplace site which currently serves
more than 79 million members from more
than 240 countries and territories.
September 2014 it was announced Alibaba
was raising $20 billion in an IPO. 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. •
2004
-He was chosen
by China Central Television and its
viewers as one of the "Top 10 Business
Leaders of the Year." •
2005 -
Ma was named one of
the "25 Most Powerful Businesspeople in
Asia" by Fortune. He was selected by
Businessweek as a "Businessperson of the
Year" in 2007 and one of the 30 "World's
Best CEOs" by Barron's in 2008. •
2005 -
Ma
was selected by the World Economic Forum
as a "Young Global Leader." •
2006 -
Graduated from
Beijing-based Cheung Kong Graduate School
of Business (CKGSB) founded in 2002 by
Hong Kong billionaire Li
Ka-shing, •
2006 -
Ma's consumer-auction
website, Taobao.com, one of the world's
biggest B2B online marketplaces, an eBay
for companies doing international trade
did so well that in 2006, eBay shut down
its own site in China." •
2007 -
In response to worldwide
criticism of the practice of killing
sharks for their fins, Ma announced that
he and his family had "sworn off Shark Fin
Soup now and forever." Ma has stated that
that moment created a newfound interest in
environmentalism that would shape his
future ethos. In January 2009, Alibaba
Group revised its listing policy and
banned the sale of shark fin products on
all of its e-commerce platforms. •
2009
-At the
Alibaba.com Annual Shareholders Meeting in
May, Ma, encouraged those in attendance,
including shareholders, customers and
students from two Hong Kong universities,
to take matters into their own hands and
take action in the form of starting
businesses to cope with the economic
downturn rather than waiting for
government or business to help them. He
reminded everyone that the great fortunes
of the world were made by people who saw
opportunities that others didn't, and he
noted that the aftermath of the recent
global recession would be no different in
terms of exposing new ways of doing
business. •
2009 -
In May 2009, Ma was
honored by Time magazine with inclusion
into the Time 100 list of the world's 100
most influential people; and "Top 10 Most
Respected Entrepreneurs in China" by
Forbes China. •
2009 -
Ma received the
"2009 CCTV Economic Person of the
Year: Business Leaders of the Decade
Award." •
2009 -
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. Ma is the first
Chinese citizen to serve on The Nature
Conservancy's board. Ma is a board member
of Japan's SoftBank and China's Huayi
Brothers Media Corporation. •
2010
-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 percent of annual revenue to
environmental protection, particularly on
water and air quality improvement
projects. Of the future of Alibaba, he has
said that "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." •
2010 -
Joined The Nature Conservancy's China
program global board of directors in
April. •
2010 -
Ma was selected by
Forbes Asia as one of "Asia's Heroes of
Philanthropy" for his contribution to
disaster relief and poverty. •
2011
- One of Ma's
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. •
2012 -
Alibaba's online
transaction volume exceeded one trillion
yuan. Ma was thus labeled "trillion Hou",
meaning literally "Trillion Yuan Marquis"
in Chinese. •
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. Ma is the first Chinese
citizen to serve on The Nature
Conservancy's board. •
2013 -
He was awarded an
honorary doctoral degree by the Hong Kong
University of Science and Technology in
November 2013 and has audited
classes at the University of California,
Berkeley. •
2013 -
January 15, 2013, Jack
Ma issued an open letter to employees
stating his intention to retire from his
post as CEO of Alibaba Group as of May 10,
2013. •
2014 -
Alibaba raised $20billion in an IPO,
in September 2014, becoming one of the
most valuable tech companies in the world
. Ma now serves as Executive Chairman of
Alibaba Group, which is a holding company
with nine major subsidiaries &endash;
Alibaba.com, Taobao Marketplace, Tmall,
eTao, Alibaba Cloud Computing, Juhuasuan,
1688.com, AliExpress.com and
Alipay.
•
Personal Jack Ma is married to Zhang Ying; they
have one daughter and one son who is
currently an undergraduate student at
University of California,
Berkeley.
03.
Special Feature
/ THE
RACE TO GO MOBILE
China's
600 million-plus Internet users are
migrating to smartphones, setting off a
scramble among the country's Internet
giants. Alibaba's toughest rival is
Tencent, which runs the WeChat mobile
messaging application, with 355 million
users. The companies are spending billions
of dollars to invest in businesses that
can help them compete.
PHILOSOPHY
What's Jack Ma's
philosophy? Investors can get a taste from
a letter Mr. Ma sent to employees, on the
day Alibaba filed its IPO prospectus. In
it, Mr. Ma warned about the ruthlessness
of the capital markets and pledged the
company would stay true to Alibaba's
principles, which put customers before
shareholders.
"Most companies, when
they're doing good, they enjoy today's
wonderful life. They don't worry about
five years later--but I worry about five
years later." --Jack Ma
04
ByLines:TVI
Bylines /
Ali Baba The title character in "Ali
Baba and the Forty Thieves," a story
from the Arabian Nights. Ali Baba gains
the treasure of the thieves, which they
keep in a cave with a magical entrance. He
opens the door of the thieves' cave in
which the Forty Thieves had hidden their
treasure, with the magical password "Open
Sesame."
Yes90
smart90 • tviNews • Yes-411
•
107
- November
Jack Ma
TVInews
- http://www.smart90.com/people/jackmal.htm
The
World of Jack Ma-
Person
Of The Week POW
•
2014
- /
NEWS
Convergence - 44th Week of 2014
/
Feature
Story
•
/
Television With No
Borders
•
