Now now, lets take a break from articles and read at some inspiring wonderful stories that gives us the gooey warm fuzzy feelings inside shall we?
Today I'm sharing about an article that stumbled upon. It's the story about the super rich billionaire, Mr. Jack Ma. I think if he was an English man, he would be knighted as a "sir" but the queen of England herself! Or if he were Malaysian, I wouldn't be calling him as "Jack Ma" but maybe more of "Dato' Tan Sri Jack Ma".
His story sorta reminds me of Malaysian's very own Jimmy Choo that had also started out his business on very humble and unassuming beginnings into a roaring success that now graces through the pages of inspiring story books for the young and young at heart alike.
Here it is! I hope that you will enjoy it as I did. Credits to the poster (link given at the end)
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Jack’s story started in Hangzhou, China, a picturesque location near Shanghai. Jack had the desire to learn and perfect his English at a young age. In order to do so, Jack would offer city tours to tourists at a hotel nearby where he stayed. Jack clearly was not the brightest bulb as he failed his entrance exam twice before successfully attending Hangzhou Teacher’s Institute and graduated in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in English.
After graduating Jack taught English at a local college for 5 years. In between those years, he tried and failed to land a job at a local KFC, a hotel and a city police. Jack was determined to set up his own business and in 1995 he started a translation company. He then got hired as a translator by a Chinese firm to recover a payment and led to a golden opportunity which landed him in the United States.
His friend in Seattle then showed him the wonders of the Internet and he wanted to use it to his advantage. He was beaming with excitement when he went home and showed his friends the Internet and his plans to use it for a business startup. Even though his ideas did not garner enough votes and support from his friends, Jack did not give up and started China Pages – an online directory for local businesses in search for foreign customers. Business failed and Jack was forced to give up the company.
He was determined to kick start another e-commerce company after his first failure and in February 1999 he founded Alibaba.com alongside 17 friends who invested in his idea. “Everyone knows the story of Alibaba as a young man who is willing to help others”, explained Jack when asked about the etymology of Alibaba.com. Jack’s business plan is the same as China Pages; helping local businesses seek foreign customers. Alibaba’s platform allowed exporters to post their products online whereby potential buyers would be able to browse through.
Investors came pouring in by October 1999 and a total of $5 million and $20 million were raised from Goldman Sachs and SoftBank respectively. It was an achievement for a startup company. Jack wanted to push the company’s potential further and in 2002 he proposed a plan to compete against popular e-commerce giant, eBay. With help from SoftBank, Jack developed the consumer-based site “Taobao” which means “searching for treasure” in Chinese.
Taobao was introduced in July 2003 and Jack did not charge a single cent for product advertising in its initial stages. Taobao was growing fast and earning more than eBay. Jack had started a fierce race with eBay China and it was not long after that eBay China threw in the towel and ceased its operations. eBay tried to buy over Taobao, but Jack refused their offer. He made a deal with Jerry Yang, the co-founder of Yahoo instead. The deal led him to acquire a collection of sites like Yahoo China that would help to boost and strengthen Taobao’s position in the market.
10 years after the successful introduction and expansion of Taobao’s
market, the website is now one of the top twenty most-visited website
around the world and has a total transaction volume of $240 billion in
2013. Taobao currently serves more than 79 million members from more
than 240 countries and territories.
Jack stepped down as CEO of Alibaba Group in 2013 and is currently the Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group which consists of nine major subsidiaries – Alibaba.com, Taobao Marketplace, Tmall, eTao, Alibaba Cloud Computing, Juhuasuan, 1688.com, AliExpress.com and Alipay.
The man made headlines everywhere in September 2014 and is now one of the most respected businessman globally.
source
Today I'm sharing about an article that stumbled upon. It's the story about the super rich billionaire, Mr. Jack Ma. I think if he was an English man, he would be knighted as a "sir" but the queen of England herself! Or if he were Malaysian, I wouldn't be calling him as "Jack Ma" but maybe more of "Dato' Tan Sri Jack Ma".
His story sorta reminds me of Malaysian's very own Jimmy Choo that had also started out his business on very humble and unassuming beginnings into a roaring success that now graces through the pages of inspiring story books for the young and young at heart alike.
Here it is! I hope that you will enjoy it as I did. Credits to the poster (link given at the end)
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Jack Ma –
A Sensational Success Story of A Chinaman
Jack Ma made waves and became the talk of the town when he struck the bell at the New York Stock Exchange. His company, Alibaba went IPO on 19 September and it closed at a market value of US$231 billion, making Jack Ma the richest man in China.Jack’s story started in Hangzhou, China, a picturesque location near Shanghai. Jack had the desire to learn and perfect his English at a young age. In order to do so, Jack would offer city tours to tourists at a hotel nearby where he stayed. Jack clearly was not the brightest bulb as he failed his entrance exam twice before successfully attending Hangzhou Teacher’s Institute and graduated in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in English.
After graduating Jack taught English at a local college for 5 years. In between those years, he tried and failed to land a job at a local KFC, a hotel and a city police. Jack was determined to set up his own business and in 1995 he started a translation company. He then got hired as a translator by a Chinese firm to recover a payment and led to a golden opportunity which landed him in the United States.
His friend in Seattle then showed him the wonders of the Internet and he wanted to use it to his advantage. He was beaming with excitement when he went home and showed his friends the Internet and his plans to use it for a business startup. Even though his ideas did not garner enough votes and support from his friends, Jack did not give up and started China Pages – an online directory for local businesses in search for foreign customers. Business failed and Jack was forced to give up the company.
He was determined to kick start another e-commerce company after his first failure and in February 1999 he founded Alibaba.com alongside 17 friends who invested in his idea. “Everyone knows the story of Alibaba as a young man who is willing to help others”, explained Jack when asked about the etymology of Alibaba.com. Jack’s business plan is the same as China Pages; helping local businesses seek foreign customers. Alibaba’s platform allowed exporters to post their products online whereby potential buyers would be able to browse through.
Investors came pouring in by October 1999 and a total of $5 million and $20 million were raised from Goldman Sachs and SoftBank respectively. It was an achievement for a startup company. Jack wanted to push the company’s potential further and in 2002 he proposed a plan to compete against popular e-commerce giant, eBay. With help from SoftBank, Jack developed the consumer-based site “Taobao” which means “searching for treasure” in Chinese.
Taobao was introduced in July 2003 and Jack did not charge a single cent for product advertising in its initial stages. Taobao was growing fast and earning more than eBay. Jack had started a fierce race with eBay China and it was not long after that eBay China threw in the towel and ceased its operations. eBay tried to buy over Taobao, but Jack refused their offer. He made a deal with Jerry Yang, the co-founder of Yahoo instead. The deal led him to acquire a collection of sites like Yahoo China that would help to boost and strengthen Taobao’s position in the market.
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| “My vision is to build an e-commerce ecosystem that allows consumers and businesses to do all aspects of business online. I want to create one million jobs, change China’s social and economic environment and make it the largest Internet market in the world.” |
Jack stepped down as CEO of Alibaba Group in 2013 and is currently the Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group which consists of nine major subsidiaries – Alibaba.com, Taobao Marketplace, Tmall, eTao, Alibaba Cloud Computing, Juhuasuan, 1688.com, AliExpress.com and Alipay.
The man made headlines everywhere in September 2014 and is now one of the most respected businessman globally.
source
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