B2B online portal was started in 1999 by Alibaba, It is one of the biggest internet based company in the world. Post Alibaba’s IPO (Initial Public Offering) released this Thursday, It turned out to be the biggest US IPO in the history. The Alibaba’s IPO is bigger than Google, Facebook, and Twitter combined.
Now the question is how this all happened? It’s come from lots of hard work, persistence and strong belief of that one men who was behind the organization in good times as well as in bad times. We know him as the co-founder of Alibaba, Jack Ma.
Billionaire Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., speaks during an event in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., on Wednesday, June 10, 2015. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.Õs entry into the U.S. runs through small businesses, the same path the online marketplace took in China, Ma said. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg *** Local Caption *** Jack Ma.
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In this post we are going to see a little known instances from Ma’s life. The sole purpose of this post is to inspire everyone. So, let’s just begin.
1. Jack’s Career
Jack Ma began his career as a English teacher.Jack Ma just know very little about computers because he start his career as an English teacher. His maximum knowledge about computers are how to send and receive e-mail.
2. Jack Ma first salary per month
At the University where he taught English, he was the only teacher assigned to 500 students. He works around 5 years in that University. His pay was 100 to 120 Renminbi, which was around $12 to $15 per month.
3. A good English speaker
He used to guide tourists for free for 8 years and that’s how he learned speaking English fluently.When Jack was 12 years old, he grew a strong aspiration to study English. He’d guide tourists from foreign countries for free and study English by communicating with them. He pass his life like this for 8 years.
[ad type=”banner”]4. An American Businessman
He was almost killed by an american business man.In 1995, Jack went to the US for assisting one of the Chinese firm to recover their money from an US Businessman and there he met an unexpected experienced. Instead of returning the money, the businessman threatened him by showing gun and locked him in his house for two days. He came out of this condition by promising him that he’d initiate an internet based company in China in partnership with him. Even he knew very little about Internet at that time.
5. Websites for Chinese Companies
He took first step towards the internet by building.After the incident mentioned above Jack started building websites for Chinese companies that was his first step towards the internet world.
In an interview he told ‘the day we got connected to the Web, I invited friends and TV people over to my house, and on a very slow dial-up connection, we waited three and a half hours and got half a page…. We drank, watched TV and played cards, waiting. But I was so proud. I proved (to my house guests that) the Internet existed.’
6. He raised initial round of funding for Alibaba within 2 hours. It was $60,000.
In 1999, I spoke for two hours about my vision with 18 people in my apartment. Everybody put their money on the table, and that got us $60,000 to initiate Alibaba.
The second round of funding from Goldman Sachs happen after 6 months they raised.
7.This is why Jack chose the name ‘Alibaba’.
Jack was always clear that he wanted to take his company to the global level and that’s why he wanted a global name. Alibaba is easy to spell, and people everywhere associate that with “Open, Sesame,” the command that Ali Baba used to open doors to hidden treasures in One Thousand and One Nights.
8. The first mainland Chinese entrepreneur
Jack Ma is the first mainland Chinese entrepreneur to appear on the cover of forbs.
9.An interesting conversation between Jack Ma and his wife Zhang Ying
Zhang was one of the founding members of Alibaba and this conversation was after a couple of years company was launched.
Zhang asked her husband how much money the company had made, and Ma raised a single finger. “Ten million yuan (US$1.6 million)?” Zhang asked, and Ma said no. “A hundred million (US$16 million)?” she asked, and Ma said no again. “One million (US$160,000),” Ma said to Zhang’s disappointment, until he added, “a day.”
10.In an interview he mentioned the reason behind his success
There were three reasons why we survived. We had no money, we had no technology, and we had no plan. Every dollar, we used very carefully.
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interesting