Jack Ma biography
“There is always enough money, there are not enough people ready to pursue their dreams,” says Jack Ma, founder of the largest electronic trading platform AliExpress. In 2019, his fortune was estimated at $ 38 billion, and the Forbes publication put him on the 21st line in the ranking of the richest people in the world and the first among the richest compatriots.
Childhood
Ma Yun was born on September 10, 1964 in the suburb of Hangzhou, capital of the southeastern province of Zhejiang. Yun became the second child in a family of musicians who made a living by teaching Chinese folk instruments.
Contrary to the information spread on the network, the family of the future billionaire was not a beggar, just not rich. A modest lifestyle was more a hallmark of the Chinese intelligentsia of the 60s and 70s than a forced situation.
During his school years, Yun was already different from his peers, and although his studies were not easy for him, he showed a single-minded character, which amazed both teachers and parents. A skinny short boy was not afraid to fight back offenders who greatly exceeded his size. He had a strange hobby – collecting crickets and making them fight.
Ma Yun’s early years came at a time when China was distancing itself from the Western world. But after President Richard Nixon visited Ma’s hometown in 1972, tourists flooded into Hangzhou, and Yun simply could not help but take advantage of it. To improve his knowledge of English, he went to the hotel every day and talked with tourists, offering the services of a tour guide and a guide to local attractions. One day, one of the tourists forgot the Chinese name of the young guide and called him Jack. Time will pass, and the name of Jack Ma will become known throughout the world.
First steps in business
His father called Ma a dreamer and kindly laughed at his son’s thirst for knowledge of the capitalist world, of which the young man had an idea, compiled from the stories of foreign tourists.
At the age of 15, Jack met an Australian family. This was the beginning of their friendship. a Hospitable Australians invited him to their place, and he gladly accepted their offer. The trip to the other side of the world changed the mindset of the Chinese boy, and his dreams took on a global scale.
“Someday I’ll eat breakfast in one country and dine in another,” said Jack, who had failed his university entrance exams several times.
After graduating from the Hangzhou Teachers’ College in 1988, Jack tried to get a lucrative job, but was refused even for a managerial position at KFC. He managed to get a job as an English teacher at his home university for $ 12 a month.
In the early 90s, he created a translation agency, but the profit was only enough to pay for the rented premises.
The businessman himself calls 1995 a turning point in his biography. That year he was invited as an interpreter to accompany the Chinese delegation on a trip to America. In the States, Jack learned about the Internet, and although he had absolutely no idea about computers, the idea of the global web captivated him. While in the States, he advertised his agency on the Web and received several job offers from Europe, America and Japan in less than 2 hours.
Jack Ma’s success story
Upon returning to his homeland, Jack shared his idea of creating the Chinese Yellow Pages project with his wife and friend, and with their help he was able to find start-up capital. The young enthusiast spent only $ 2,000 to open a business, but after three years the profit exceeded 800,000. In the late 90s, Jack was already in charge of the e-commerce center at the Department of Foreign Trade.
The richest Chinese
In 1999, Jack and 17 friends decided to create a website that would allow merchandise manufacturers to directly sell to wholesale and retail customers. The decision to leave government service and reopen Jack’s business was called rash. Wages were high, but the dream of creating his own business empire beckoned to him.
As Jack himself says, he came up with the name of his business much earlier than his dreams took on real shape. The Alibaba Group was supposed to become a platform for trading activities, and the daring project was named in honor of a fabulous cave with treasures, access to which only those who were lucky enough to find out the password could get.
A year later, $ 25 million was invested in the project, but the size of the profit did not suit Jack. Some sources say that the initial profit of one of the most daring and successful business projects was only $ 1, which simply cannot be true, because if this were the case, then investors are unlikely to start investing.
5 life changing tips from Jack Ma
In the period 2003 – 2006, the businessman also developed the subsidiaries of the Alibaba Group – Alipay, Taobao and Ali Mama. The owners of eBay offered Jack fantastic sums to buy out Taobao from him, which literally brought down the shares of their product, but he refused, and the creator of Yahoo, Jerry Yang, invested $ 1 billion in his venture.
At the end of 2006, eBay was forced to leave the PRC market, and according to information published in the Forbes annual report, the fortune of the former English teacher was $ 30 billion. A few years later, Jack stepped down as head of his company, while retaining the position of chairman of the board of directors.
In 2014, Ma made the decision to list Alibaba Group shares on the New York Stock Exchange, which was not met by other board members, but profit, which exceeded 25 billion instead of the planned one billion, marked the victory for Jack Ma and his daring ideas.
Jack Ma’s personal life
The chosen one of the future billionaire was his classmate Zhang Ying, whom he married shortly before graduation. Ying became a loyal friend of Jack and supported him even when no one else believed in his success.
It is known that Jack and Ying have two children, the family leads a closed lifestyle and does not boast of their wealth.
Jack Ma now
Jack was denied admission to Harvard 10 times, but now the entrepreneur is often invited to lecture at a famous university, and each visit becomes an event for students.
Jack’s empire includes more than ten business structures, among which are well-known – Taobao, Alipay and, of course, AliExpress, which has a representative office in Moscow since 2016.
Jack Ma is named among the most powerful and wealthy people on the planet, Alibaba Group controls 80% of China’s online commerce, most of which are paid through Alipay. Among Jack’s projects, not least is Facebook’s Chinese brother, Weibo, which has over 155 million unique users every month.
Jack Ma biography
“There is always enough money, there are not enough people ready to pursue their dreams,” says Jack Ma, founder of the largest electronic trading platform AliExpress. In 2019, his fortune was estimated at $ 38 billion, and the Forbes publication put him on the 21st line in the ranking of the richest people in the world and the first among the richest compatriots.
Childhood
Ma Yun was born on September 10, 1964 in the suburb of Hangzhou, capital of the southeastern province of Zhejiang. Yun became the second child in a family of musicians who made a living by teaching Chinese folk instruments.
Contrary to the information spread on the network, the family of the future billionaire was not a beggar, just not rich. A modest lifestyle was more a hallmark of the Chinese intelligentsia of the 60s and 70s than a forced situation.
During his school years, Yun was already different from his peers, and although his studies were not easy for him, he showed a single-minded character, which amazed both teachers and parents. A skinny short boy was not afraid to fight back offenders who greatly exceeded his size. He had a strange hobby – collecting crickets and making them fight.
Ma Yun’s early years came at a time when China was distancing itself from the Western world. But after President Richard Nixon visited Ma’s hometown in 1972, tourists flooded into Hangzhou, and Yun simply could not help but take advantage of it. To improve his knowledge of English, he went to the hotel every day and talked with tourists, offering the services of a tour guide and a guide to local attractions. One day, one of the tourists forgot the Chinese name of the young guide and called him Jack. Time will pass, and the name of Jack Ma will become known throughout the world.
First steps in business
His father called Ma a dreamer and kindly laughed at his son’s thirst for knowledge of the capitalist world, of which the young man had an idea, compiled from the stories of foreign tourists.
At the age of 15, Jack met an Australian family. This was the beginning of their friendship. a Hospitable Australians invited him to their place, and he gladly accepted their offer. The trip to the other side of the world changed the mindset of the Chinese boy, and his dreams took on a global scale.
“Someday I’ll eat breakfast in one country and dine in another,” said Jack, who had failed his university entrance exams several times.
After graduating from the Hangzhou Teachers’ College in 1988, Jack tried to get a lucrative job, but was refused even for a managerial position at KFC. He managed to get a job as an English teacher at his home university for $ 12 a month.
In the early 90s, he created a translation agency, but the profit was only enough to pay for the rented premises.
The businessman himself calls 1995 a turning point in his biography. That year he was invited as an interpreter to accompany the Chinese delegation on a trip to America. In the States, Jack learned about the Internet, and although he had absolutely no idea about computers, the idea of the global web captivated him. While in the States, he advertised his agency on the Web and received several job offers from Europe, America and Japan in less than 2 hours.
Jack Ma’s success story
Upon returning to his homeland, Jack shared his idea of creating the Chinese Yellow Pages project with his wife and friend, and with their help he was able to find start-up capital. The young enthusiast spent only $ 2,000 to open a business, but after three years the profit exceeded 800,000. In the late 90s, Jack was already in charge of the e-commerce center at the Department of Foreign Trade.
The richest Chinese
In 1999, Jack and 17 friends decided to create a website that would allow merchandise manufacturers to directly sell to wholesale and retail customers. The decision to leave government service and reopen Jack’s business was called rash. Wages were high, but the dream of creating his own business empire beckoned to him.
As Jack himself says, he came up with the name of his business much earlier than his dreams took on real shape. The Alibaba Group was supposed to become a platform for trading activities, and the daring project was named in honor of a fabulous cave with treasures, access to which only those who were lucky enough to find out the password could get.
A year later, $ 25 million was invested in the project, but the size of the profit did not suit Jack. Some sources say that the initial profit of one of the most daring and successful business projects was only $ 1, which simply cannot be true, because if this were the case, then investors are unlikely to start investing.
5 life changing tips from Jack Ma
In the period 2003 – 2006, the businessman also developed the subsidiaries of the Alibaba Group – Alipay, Taobao and Ali Mama. The owners of eBay offered Jack fantastic sums to buy out Taobao from him, which literally brought down the shares of their product, but he refused, and the creator of Yahoo, Jerry Yang, invested $ 1 billion in his venture.
At the end of 2006, eBay was forced to leave the PRC market, and according to information published in the Forbes annual report, the fortune of the former English teacher was $ 30 billion. A few years later, Jack stepped down as head of his company, while retaining the position of chairman of the board of directors.
In 2014, Ma made the decision to list Alibaba Group shares on the New York Stock Exchange, which was not met by other board members, but profit, which exceeded 25 billion instead of the planned one billion, marked the victory for Jack Ma and his daring ideas.
Jack Ma’s personal life
The chosen one of the future billionaire was his classmate Zhang Ying, whom he married shortly before graduation. Ying became a loyal friend of Jack and supported him even when no one else believed in his success.
It is known that Jack and Ying have two children, the family leads a closed lifestyle and does not boast of their wealth.
Jack Ma now
Jack was denied admission to Harvard 10 times, but now the entrepreneur is often invited to lecture at a famous university, and each visit becomes an event for students.
Jack’s empire includes more than ten business structures, among which are well-known – Taobao, Alipay and, of course, AliExpress, which has a representative office in Moscow since 2016.
Jack Ma is named among the most powerful and wealthy people on the planet, Alibaba Group controls 80% of China’s online commerce, most of which are paid through Alipay. Among Jack’s projects, not least is Facebook’s Chinese brother, Weibo, which has over 155 million unique users every month.