Jack Ma; A Brief Biography

                                                            Jack Ma; A Brief Biography

¹ Afroze Gul ² Muhammad Naeem

Laureate Folks International

ERC, Pakistan

https://lauratefolks.blogspot.com

laureatefolks@gmail.com, WhatsApp: +923334446261

 

Jack Ma- a  Chinese business giant and co-founder of Alibaba Group- is a former English and international trade lecturer at Hangzhou Dianzi University, born on 10th September 1964. Earlier, Jack Ma worked at Hangzhou International Hotel. It was there that he became well-versed in the English language by communicating with foreigners at the hotel. Ma also gave tours to tourists on his bicycle for 9 years to have command over the English language. His Chinese name is MA Yun. 

One of the foreigners, who also became his friend, named him Jack because he found it easy to pronounce. Jack Ma served as the head of the student council in the school. Afterwards, it took 3 years for Jack Ma to pass his entry test at Hangzhou Teachers College, for he was weak in mathematics. Later. he did his Bachelor of Arts from Hangzhou Teacher's Institute.

Today, he is known as the former executive chairman of Alibaba Group, as he retired from Alibaba in 2020 to pursue educational goals, help and guide the startup business community, and work for a sustainable climate. Jack Ma Foundation- founded by Jack Ma- focuses on educational goals, a sustainable environment, and making public health better. Besides, Alibaba Group- a multinational technology company- is based on an economy, which is market-driven. Currently, he is 57 years old, married to Zhang Ying, has three children, and lives in Hangzhou, China. 

He also owns a vineyard in France. This blog will shed light on the biography of Jack Ma, his business strategies, reasons for his success, the founding of Alibaba, his list of honours, challenges faced by Jack Ma, and will explore the suggestions for the long-term growth of Alibaba.

Business Strategies and Reasons for Success of Jack Ma

Before he started his career in entrepreneurship, Jack Ma applied for 31 jobs after his graduation in 1988 to only face rejection later. He started his first company "Hangzhou Haibo Translation Agency" in 1994 when he realized the power and worth of the internet. Later, in 1995, Jack Ma collaborated with He Yibing-a computer teacher- and opened a second company.     

It was known as China Pages. Also, they built a website chinapages.com and registered their domain in the United States. In the first three years, they received a turnover of $800,000. Besides, he also started to build websites for other Chinese companies. At the age of 33, Jack Ma got his first computer. It was, indeed, the timely realization of the power of the internet and the directions that he chose for himself that put him ahead of his time. Additionally, he served as the head of China International Electronic Commerce Center- an information technology company- from 1998-1999. It was founded by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation. He only headed it for one year, gained more exposure, and returned to China.

The Founding of Alibaba

It was then that he founded Alibaba with 18 friends. Initially, Alibaba was based in an apartment. It got a capital investment of $25 million in 1999 and 2000 from Goldman Sachs and Softbank. It aimed to improve and help small and medium-sized Chinese enterprises. He didn't stop here and founded subsidiaries, including Taobao Marketplace, Alipay, Ali Mama, Alibaba.com, Tmall, eTao, Alibaba Cloud Computing, Juhuasuan, 1688.com, AliExpress.com, and Lynx, aimed at making the e-commerce business stronger globally. 

At the end of 2012, its online transaction volume increased to one trillion yuan. In 2013, Jack Ma retired from being a chief executive officer of Alibaba. However, he continued to serve as the executive chairman of the corporation. In 2014, Alibaba was ranked as the most valuable and worthy technology company in the world, as it managed to step up $25 billion in an initial public offering (IPO). It is the largest IPO in the history of US finance.

The Present Influence and Honours of Jack Ma

 In 2016, it was reported that Jack Ma owns Château de Sours in Bordeaux, Château Guerry in Côtes de Bourg, and Château Perenne in Blaye. This Chinese business giant serves as an influencer for startup businesses, also playing the role of philanthropist. This is the reason he was selected by Forbes in "Asia's 2019 Heroes of Philanthropy." He also ranks as the fourth wealthiest person in China. 

Moreover, Bloomberg Billionaires Index ranked Jack Ma as the richest man in China in 2014 with a net worth of $21.8 billion. Fortuna listed him 2nd in the list of "World's 50 Greatest Leaders" in 2017. Founding one of the world's largest e-commerce businesses, Jack Ma has a net worth of $41.3 billion as of 2021. Forbes ranked him on 5th number in ''China Rich List 2021'', 26th in the list of ''Billionaires 2021'' in the world, 21st in the list of "Powerful People 2018'', and 7th among the "Richest In Tech 2017'' and ''Global Game Changers 2016''

Challenges Faced by Alibaba

It was noted that his businesses faced a crackdown by financial regulators. The initial public offering (IPO) of Ant's Group- a fintech affiliate of Alibaba- was cancelled immediately. This incident came to light after the financial regulators intervened and an investigation was opened against Alibaba. Jack Ma spoke publicly about the matter and criticized the Chinese industry establishment. This speech was his last public appearance in October 2020. After this, he disappeared and was not publicly active between October 2020 and 2021. Many believe that it is due to political pressure.

In January 2021, Jack Ma was seen publicly again at an unpopular elementary school in a 43-second video. However, sources hint that his appearance at the school was staged by a government agency. Later on, his other public appearances have been reported at different places by the media, of which none are authorized or verified. In April, Ma participated along with 7 other participants in a video call with Vladimir Putin. However, in this 90-minute video call, Ma is seen silently sitting in a chair, not speaking a word. 

The media is suspicious of this event, for it is unlikely that the star philanthropist- Jack Ma- will sit silent and not participate in the discussion. The additional irony is that nobody in the meeting called upon him or referred him. All these events raise suspicions about Jack Ma being held hostage by political pressure.

Suggestion for Long-Term Growth and Survival of Alibaba

People complain that in some regions, Alibaba takes 8-15 days to deliver. So, it should work on making its delivery mechanism fast. It is also imperative to note that digital businesses, like Alibaba, must continue to comprehend how the future industries will advance and progress. Jack Ma must keep on analyzing how the future would likely evolve in the presence of changes that occur frequently in society, the economy, and technology.