Interview with Jack Ma of Alibaba and Taobao (part 2)
This is part two of an interview with Jack Ma, founder and president of Alibaba and Taobao.
Jack, the blind man on a blind tiger, is from Hanzhou and was trained to be a High School English teacher. He mastered his communication skills by guiding tourists for free. One of those tourists named him Jack after her husband. He liked the name because he said, "it was easy to say."
At one point, he moved to Beijing and became a guide for the government. While there he was asked to guide/translate for a special guest from the states on one occasion. The guest…Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo. They formed a lasting friendship.
When Jack returned to China to start up his Internet company he gathered 24 of his college classmates together. Twenty three of them turned him down and one decided to try.
It took him and his friend three hours to get their new company registered with the local Chinese government, partially because there was no Chinese equivalent for the idea of the Internet. Their founding capital was $2000.
In 2002, Alibaba made its first $1 of profit. In 2003 it made $1million for the year. In 2004 it made $1million RMB per day and in 2005 it paid $1million in taxes.
Humble beginnings…and hard work….Jack Ma has come a long way.
If Jack can do it, don’t you wonder who else in China is doing it?
Don’t you wonder if you can do it or not?
Try!
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