Jack Ma

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jack Ma at the 48th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum 2018

Jack Ma ( Chinese  馬雲  /  马云 , Pinyin Mǎ Yún ; born September 10, 1964 in Hangzhou ) is a Chinese entrepreneur . He is the founder and long-time head of the Alibaba Group , a group of successful internet companies. He was the first mainland Chinese to be featured on the cover of Forbes magazine.

Life

Jack Ma was born in Hangzhou in the Chinese province of Zhejiang . His parents were traditional musicians and storytellers who practiced the traditional "pingtan". Ma found an early interest in learning English , which is why he drove to a nearby hotel every morning to speak English with foreigners. He took her around town for free for over nine years to improve his English.

Ma later studied at the Hangzhou Teacher's Institute, now known as Hangzhou Normal University , even though he failed the entrance exam three times. During his student days, Ma was elected chairman of the students. Ma also met his wife Zhang Ying while studying. In 1988 he graduated with a bachelor's degree in English and married Ying.

He became a lecturer in English and International Trade and later enrolled at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CGSB) in Beijing , where he also graduated in 2006. According to Ma's own statement, he then applied for 30 different jobs and was rejected for all of them.

As a founder and patron, Ma donated 2.22 billion euros within one year in 2015.

Entrepreneurial career

Hangzhou Hope Translation Agency

In 1994 he set up the Hangzhou Hope Translation Agency on a part-time basis , employing retired English teachers.

China Pages

Ma first encountered a computer in 1995 while visiting a friend in Seattle . When his friend motivated him to familiarize himself with the computer, Ma surfed the Internet for the first time after initial hesitation. His friend published the contact details of his translation agency and a few hours later the first inquiries came by email . The experience inspired him to start his first internet company, China Pages . Ma used private savings and loans from parents and relatives as start-up funding.

Alibaba

In 1999, Ma founded Alibaba with 16 partners, his wife and $ 60,000 in start-up capital. In May 2013, Ma handed over the chairmanship of the Alibaba Group to Lu Zhaoxi. On September 8, 2018, Ma announced that on his 54th birthday, September 10, he would be leaving Alibaba to attend to education issues. However, he stayed a year longer and retired on his 55th birthday. He wants to work for charitable purposes in general.

Trivia

  • According to his own statement, Jack Ma chose the company name Alibaba during a break in an American street cafe because it is known and used across all cultures. To check this assumption, he spontaneously asked 30 passers-by whether they knew the name. When everyone confirmed this, his decision was made.
  • Jack Ma is a multi billionaire . He ranks 33rd on the list of the world's richest people published by Forbes magazine in 2015, with an estimated fortune of $ 22.7 billion.
  • When Alibaba went public, Ma renounced the custom of ringing a bell. Because his company puts the customer first, he let eight Alibaba customers do the ringing - eight is a lucky number in Chinese culture.
  • In October 2015, the British Prime Minister David Cameron added Ma to his advisory board.
  • Ma makes no secret of the fact that his life was marked by numerous setbacks and defeats. In interviews he emphasizes u. a. that he was rejected ten times at Harvard University .
  • On September 24, 2014, Ma said in an interview that the strength of Western societies can be attributed to their Christian roots and that it is important for China to use a positive value system in order to overcome the consequences of the Cultural Revolution .
  • Ma has a penchant for cartoon characters and gives his employees Kung Fu nicknames. His own nickname is "Feng Qingyang", after a Chinese fictional character who lives a secluded swordsman in the mountains and is prone to unpredictable outbursts of anger.

literature

  • Ming Zeng: Smart Business. Alibaba's strategy secret. With a foreword by Jack Ma. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2019, ISBN 978-3-593-50994-5 . (With notes, bibliography and register)
    • American original edition: Smart Business. What Alibaba´s Success Reveals About the Future of Strategy. Harvard Business Review Press, Boston 2018.

Web links

Commons : Ma Yun  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kayla Tausche: Alibaba's Jack Ma gets special gift for 50th b-day. In: CNBC. September 10, 2014, accessed August 23, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem. In: www.techinasia.com. Retrieved August 23, 2016 (American English).
  3. ^ JD Rockefeller: Jack Ma's Life Lessons and Rules for Success . Ed .: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. 2016, ISBN 978-1-5347-8951-7 .
  4. ↑ Who is Jack Ma? - Market Business News. September 19, 2014, accessed August 23, 2016 (UK English).
  5. ↑ Atul Aneja: Jack Ma: success made in China . In: The Hindu . September 21, 2014, ISSN  0971-751X ( online [accessed September 15, 2016]).
  6. ↑ a b How I Did It: Jack Ma, Alibaba.com. January 1, 2008, accessed August 23, 2016 .
  7. ↑ How Jack Ma Went From Being A Poor School Teacher To Turning Alibaba Into A $ 160 Billion Behemoth. Retrieved August 23, 2016 .
  8. ↑ a b c d Frederick E. Allen: What Makes Alibaba's Jack Ma a Great Innovator? Retrieved September 18, 2016 .
  9. ↑ Charlie Rose charlierose Subscribe Reprints: Charlie Rose Talks to Alibaba's Jack Ma. In: Bloomberg.com. Retrieved August 24, 2016 .
  10. ↑ a b Zhang Ying, the wife of Alibaba founder Jack Ma; "Ma Yun is not a handsome man, but I fell for him because he can do a lot of things handsome men cannot do". In: Bamboo Innovator. September 30, 2013, accessed September 15, 2016 .
  11. ↑ a b 13 Fascinating Facts About the Man Behind The Largest IPO in History. In: nextshark.com. Retrieved September 15, 2016 .
  12. ↑ Alumni Profiles | CKGSB. In: english.ckgsb.edu.cn. Retrieved September 15, 2016 .
  13. ↑ Charlie Rose: Charlie Rose Talks to Alibaba's Jack Ma. In: Bloomberg.com. Retrieved August 23, 2016 .
  14. ↑ Jack Ma is China's most generous philanthropist . german.china.org.cn, April 21, 2015, accessed on April 3, 2018
  15. ^ Hangzhou Hope Translation Agency - Introduction. In: at0086.com. Accessed August 19, 2018 (English).
  16. ^ Duncan Clark: Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built . Ed .: Ecco. 2018, ISBN 978-0-06-241341-3 , pp. 53-54 (English).
  17. ^ Duncan Clark: Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built . Ed .: Ecco. 2018, ISBN 978-0-06-241341-3 , pp. 66 (English).
  18. ^ Duncan Clark: Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built . Ed .: Ecco. 2018, ISBN 978-0-06-241341-3 , pp. 70, 81 (English).
  19. ↑ Steven Millward: Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem. Retrieved February 28, 2018 (American English).
  20. ↑ The richest man in China: founder Jack Ma gives up senior positions at Alibaba. In: Spiegel Online . September 8, 2018, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  21. ↑ Jack Ma is the second richest Chinese. Retrieved October 22, 2015 .
  22. ^ Alibaba's Jack Ma to let clients ring IPO opening bell at NYSE. September 19, 2014, accessed September 15, 2016 .
  23. ↑ Great Britain: Chinese billionaire Jack Ma advises David Cameron. on: Spiegel Online. 19th October 2015.
  24. ↑ https://eastgates.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Christianity_and_Americas_Founding.pdf
personal data
SURNAME Ma, Jack
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 马云 (Chinese); 馬雲 (Chinese); Mǎ Yún (pinyin); Ma Yun
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chinese entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH November 1964
PLACE OF BIRTH Hangzhou