Entrepreneur Profile
	Jack Ma
	Founder & Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group
	Birthday	:	10 September 1964
	Nationality	:	Chinese
	Education	:	Hangzhou University
	Net Worth	:	US$ 36.2 Billion
	Family	:	Spouse Zhang Ying
			Children Ma Yuan Ku
Jack Ma is a Business tycoon belonging to China known for his e-commerce business venture ‘Alibaba’
Background
Jack Ma is one of the world’s greatest living examples of entrepreneurship today. Once a poor lad who survived by guiding tourists, Ma left no stone unturned to rise above his humble condition and achieve success. One of the first steps he took in this regard was to improve his communication skills by learning English. Jack was one of the first few individuals who saw Internet as a business opportunity even at a time when the rest of the world didn’t believe in his thoughts. After starting his first venture using a mere $20000, the entrepreneur earned around $800,000 in a matter of just three years. However, it is the e-commerce based venture, ‘Alibaba’, which he founded in the early 2000s that catapulted this entrepreneur to global fame. The revenue earned by the firm has helped him reach the zenith of success and made him the richest man in China. He even co-founded a few other similar ventures which were also successful to a great extent; one of these was the e-commerce website called ‘Taobao’. Jack has also been a recipient of many awards over the years; a few of these include featuring in world-renowned magazines such as ‘Forbes’, ‘Time’ and others
Childhood and Early Life
Jack was born to parents, who were involved in a profession of storytelling through music, on the 10th of September, 1964. The place of his birth was Hangzhou city located in the Zhejiang Province of China Since a really young age the lad was very keen on gathering knowledge about English and tried his best to communicate better in the language. His passion to be a better speaker used to even drive him to a hotel located near his residence, which was frequented by foreigners. 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. Simultaneously, Ma also aspired to enrol in a university and even attended exams for the same reason, but remained unsuccessful. He then joined the ‘Hangzhou Teacher’s Training Institute’ to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in English. Jack graduated from the institution in the year 1988.
Career
In the mid 1990’s Jack got to know about the existence of the internet and began seeing this new trend in technology as a great business opportunity. Ma even frequently visited the United States in 1995 to learn more about the internet. One of his friends even showed him how to connect to a website. The same year, he even raised a fund of $20000 to start his own firm with an intention of solely focussing on the internet. The purpose of the company was to create websites for their clients. Although this kind of business was relatively new, Jack managed to earn a whopping $800000 in a matter of just 3 years. His success in the field of internet, led to Jack’s appointment as the head of a firm governed by the agency ‘China International Electronic Commerce Center’, in 1998. He continued working in this IT-based firm for the next one year. After stepping down from his responsibilities in 1999, Jack founded a company named ‘Alibaba’ along with many other friends. The intention was to create a website which is more like a one stop shop for business to business transactions. During 1999-2000, the company received a financial backing of $25 million, which significantly helped in the growth of the company. 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 keenon acquiring the firm. However, Ma was disinterested in entering into any kind of acquisition deal with the firm. ‘Taobao’ aslo 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.
Major Works (Product)
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.
Awards and Achievements
In 2004, Ma was honoured as one of the "Top 10 Economic Personas of the Year" by China Central Television (CCTV) In Sep 2005, the World Economic Forum selected Ma as a "Young Global Leader" Fortune also selected him as one of the "25 Most Powerful Businessperson in Asia" in 2005. Businessweek also selected him as a "Businessperson of the Year" in 2007 In 2008, Barron's featured him as one of the 30 "World's Best CEOs" In May 2009, Time magazine listed Ma as one of the world's 100 most powerful people. In reporting Ma's accomplishments, Adi Ignatius, former Time senior editor and editor-in-chief of the Harvard Business Review, noted that "the Chinese Internet entrepreneur is soft-spoken and elf-like — and he speaks really good English" and remarked that "Taobao.com, Mr. Ma's consumer-auction website, conquered eBay in China." He was also included in this list in 2014.” BusinessWeek chose him as one of China's Most Powerful People. Forbes China also selected him as one of the Top 10 Most Respected Entrepreneurs in China by in 2009. Ma received the 2009 CCTV Economic Person of the Year: Business Leaders of the Decade Award. In 2010, Ma was selected by Forbes Asia as one of Asia's Heroes of Philanthropy for his contribution to disaster relief and poverty. In 2011 it was announced that one of his 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 4 were aware of the transaction. The ownership dispute was resolved by Alibaba Group, Yahoo! and Softbank in July 2011. Ma was awarded an honorary doctoral degree by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in November 2013. Ma is a board member of Japan's SoftBank and China's Huayi Brothers Media Corporation. 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. In 2014, he was ranked as the 30th most powerful person in the world in an annual ranking published by Forbes. In 2015, Asian Award honoured him with the Entrepreneur of the Year award. In 2017, Fortune ranked Ma second on its World's 50 Greatest Leaders list. In 2017, a KPMG survey ranked Ma third in global tech innovation visionary survey. In October 2017, Ma was given an honorary degree of Doctor of Science in Technopreneurship from De La Salle University Manila, Philippines. In May 2018, Ma was given an honorary degree of Doctor of Social Sciences honoris causa in recognition of his contributions to technology, society and the world by University of Hong Kong. In May 2018, Ma received an honourable doctoral degree from professors Yaakov Frenkel and Yaron Oz at the Tel Aviv University in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Reference
https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/jack-ma-6221.php https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ma https://www.alibaba.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kfketFPa7U