Jack Ma, originally named Ma Yun born on 10th  September 1964 in the city of Hangzhou, Zhejiang province of southeastern China. Jack Ma is the 2nd of three siblings of his storyteller and musician parents have grown up within poverty.

But his indomitable aspiration to reach the zenith of success by acquiring knowledge and making full use of it has made him the 2nd richest man in China and the 20th of the world. Jack Ma is such a charismatic leader and entrepreneur who has pioneered the change of online business by offering a more customer-centric approach- for both buyer and seller in the online market place.

What he has done so far?

Founder of Alibaba. In short Jack Ma has revolutionized the system and approach of E-commerce business by reaching out to every single customer both at the individual and institutional levels.


Alibaba Group and its subsidiary concern Taobao, Tmall, Aliexpress, Alipay have grown and surpassed most of its global competitors within just a decade when China’s industrial sector has boomed at a tremendous rate and occupied the foreign market rapidly.

Easy access to the Chinese products and informative details in a foreign language in the online platform has made it possible. Jack Ma has played a catalytic role through Alibaba in this regard, and the process is still going on with surprising innovation.

By doing so he made fortune for himself as well as for his nation and the whole mankind as a whole. Because it made online shopping easier, smarter and cheaper.

How he had started?

In a deep sense, Jack Ma started his journey of success right from his boyhood. He grew up in communist China, which was far behind than the western world in the usage of technology and the availability of necessary goods.

But the attitude of continuous struggling and must win determination has made Jack become the successful businessman and leader surpassing all the obstacles on his way. when the USA President Nixon visited Hangzhou in 1972, the mesmerizing natural beauty of Jack’s town came into the notice of western tourists.

First step of Jack Ma

With thirst to know about the western people, their culture and languages teenager Ma used to wake up early in the morning and went to the city’s main hotel riding bi-cycle to offer the foreign visitors tours around the city at a free of cost for having a chance to chat in English and thereby increasing his fluency in a foreign language, which has been rarely used in China.

Secret of Jack Ma name

He was nicknamed “Jack” by one of the female tourists who found it hard to pronounce his Chinese name ‘Ma Yun’.After completing high school education, he applied for admission into the college held once a year in China but failed twice to pass the exam.

He finally passed on the third attempt to get enrolled in Hangzhou Teachers Institute. He graduated from that institute in 1988 and started applying for any jobs he finds suitable for him.

struggle of Jack Ma

He was being rejected from one after another including KFC before being hired as an English teacher at Hangzhou Dianzi University with a pay of $12 a month. Jack Ma was friendly with his students and still, he loves the teaching profession.

Till 1995 Jack Ma remained out of the touch of the computer. He was fascinated by the internet to search online for ‘beer’ and found the details of this drinks many originated from many of the countries except China.

He realized that the internet is not widely used in China and there is a good opportunity to make money by the internet if somehow he can build a bridge between his country and the rest of the world utilizing this remote communication technology.

Jack Ma translation business

After returning to China, he started translation business in the name of the Hangzhou Haibo Translation Agency and helped a Chinese firm to recover its overdue payment from a buyer abroad. Being inspired at the initial level Jack Ma decided to launch the first-ever website developer company in China named chinapagesdotcom .On May 10, 1995, Ma and He Yibing registered the domain in the United States, within 3 years which earned 0.80 million US dollar.

Four years later he formed a team of 18 members and convinced them to invest in his new venture of the online marketplace which he named “Alibaba” in his apartment. This website is to help the Chinese exporters to post their products for customers to make orders online.

Within a little period, this e-commerce site attracted attention from different concerns from all over the world. In October 1999, Goldman Sachs invested $5 million and Japanese telecom giant and High-Tech investor Soft Bank invested $20 million in Alibaba.

At first, Alibaba was aimed to improve the domestic e-commerce platform for Chinese enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to address the challenges posed by World Trade Organization (WTO) on Chinese businesses.

Success of Jack Ma

After attaining a quick success for Alibaba.com, on 2003 Jack Ma scattered his business footprints on global arena by launching subsidiaries of Alibaba Group, such as nine major subsidiaries: Alibaba.com, Taobao Marketplace, Tmall, eTao, Alibaba Cloud Computing, Juhuasuan, 1688.com, AliExpressdotcom, and Alipay each are intended for separate segment of its e-commerce business.

The quick success of Alibaba group, led by Jack Ma as the executive chairman drew the attention of international investors which was reflected in raising the record level initial public offering (IPO) of over $25 billion in USA financial history on the New York Stock Exchange on September 2014.

On January 9th, 2017 Ma met with the USA President Donald Trump at Trump Tower, to express his willingness to create 1 million jobs in the next five years through Alibaba’s activities in the country.

On his 55th birthday of 10th September 2018, Jack Ma announced to step down from the position of executive chairman of Alibaba Group Holding, while denying the reports of being forced to resign by the Chinese authority and supporting his exit decision for charity works through his foundation. He nominated Daniel Zhang as his successor in Alibaba.

Special facts about Jack Ma.

1. Although being a member of the Chinese Communist party Jack Ma is a strong proponent of an open and market-driven economy.

2. Jack Ma is regarded as one of the most powerful personalities of the world. As of 5th January 2020, he is the 21st richest man in the world and 2nd in China (next to Ma Huateng, the executive chairman of Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings) ranked by both Bloomberg Billionaires Index and Forbes magazine.

3. In 2017, Jack Ma made his debut in film career with his first kung fu short film ‘Gong Shou Dao’

4. Jack Ma was criticized by the foreigners for his public support of harsh Chinese work practice best known as the 996 working hour system.

5. Jack Ma is the recipient of numerous awards and honor both from home and abroad for his contribution in different sectors including environment, poverty reduction.

6. Jack Ma is seen frequently in providing different inspirational speeches to upcoming entrepreneurs, students in different countries.