Jack Ma: A Story of Success Through Failure | Alibaba Amazon of china | Alibaba Group | Self Made
Channel: WHITE WOLF
Date: 03/01/2021

Jack Ma: A Story of Success Through Failure
#JACKMA #ALIBABA #AMAZONOFCHINA
• Now, he is one of the richest people in the world as the founder of Alibaba, one of the biggest e-commerce companies on the planet.  In 2009 and 2014, Ma made it onto Time magazine’s '100 most influential people' and was also selected as one of ‘China’s Most Powerful People’ by Business week, even appearing on the front page of Forbes magazine.
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
Jack Ma was born in the city of Hangzhou in China, growing up in a poor family at the time of the Cultural Revolution.


• It was when US President Richard Nixon visited Hangzhou in 1972 that Jack Ma became entranced by the Western world. As a young child, he would visit the hotels where US tourists were staying to learn English in exchange for giving them tours around the city. In fact, it was through befriending one of the tourists that Jack Ma got his English name ‘Jack’

• Although Ma failed his university entrance exam twice, scoring less than 1% in maths, he eventually passed and began studying English at the Hangzhou Teacher’s Institute. After graduating, he applied for 30 different jobs but was rejected for all of them. Out of the 24 people who applied for KFC, Ma was the only one to be rejected. He also applied for the police force, but was rejected and told he was ‘no good’. He was finally able to find a job as an English teacher, earning as little as $US12 each month.
'He failed multiple times in primary school, middle school, and university. He was rejected by the police force and even for a job at KFC'
PERSISTENCE THROUGH FAILURE
• Despite all these failures and rejections, Ma persisted throughout. Relying on his English skills, Ma started a translation service business and visited the US as a translator where he was introduced to the Internet. Without any technical knowledge of computers or coding, Ma became interested in this new phenomenon at the time.

• The idea of creating an online store came from Ma discovering the lack of Chinese beer in online search results. This led him to create his second venture online called ‘Chinapage’ which listed Chinese businesses and products. This sparked a flood of emails from people all over the world seeking to form partnerships. In order to expand and obtain more funding, Ma decided to partner with a government company. Unfortunately, as the company gained majority control over the venture, this stifled Ma’s vision for the business and led to his departure from the company.

• Ma then took up a government job at the Ministry for Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, through which he was able to build connections with people of influence such as one of the founders of Yahoo!, Jerry Yang.

businesses.
• To secure funding for this venture, Ma traveled to the US once again, this time to Silicon Valley to pitch his idea. But he faced a familiar obstacle as his idea was rejected and criticized as being unprofitable and unsustainable. Through persistence, Ma was eventually able to secure funding of $US 5 million from Goldman Sachs and $US 20 million from Softbank.

MAKING HISTORY
• But Ma was able to pick up the pieces and unify his remaining team to take Alibaba forward, challenging established online businesses like eBay who already had existing operations in China. Within five years, Ma and Alibaba managed to drive eBay out of business in China, and with the help of further funding from Yahoo! founder Jerry Yang, Alibaba was able to expand and grow further into the international market.

• In 2014, Alibaba made history through the world’s largest IPO to date. The company has continued to grow from strength to strength, scaling its operations into various industries such as technology and logistics, turning the online business into one of the world’s largest conglomerates today.

COMPANY WHICH JACK MA MAJOR SHAREHOLDING

• Youku Tudou Inc.
Type of Business: Multi-Screen Entertainment and Media Company
Acquisition Price: $1.1 billion for 16.5% stake; $4.4 billion for (remaining stake).

• Alibaba Pictures Group (formerly ChinaVision Media)
Type of Business: Film Company
Acquisition Price: $804 million (controlling stake)

• South China Morning Post (SCMP)
Type of Business: English-Language Newspaper
Acquisition Price: $266 million


• Lazada Group
Type of Business: E-Commerce Platform
Acquisition Price: $1.0 billion (54% stake)


• Intime Department Store
Type of Business: Department Store Operator
Acquisition Price: $692 million (initial investment); $2.6 billion (74% controlling stake)

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