Ma was born and raised in Hangzhou. He first encountered English while providing free guided tours for foreign tourists visiting his city, then listening to Voice of America broadcasts. On his third attempt he passed his college entrance exam.
Ma is often compared to Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk due to his relentless drive and determination. He remains passionate about China while supporting rural education efforts.
Born on September 10, 1964 in Hangzhou, China
Jack Ma is a Chinese billionaire businessman best known for co-founding Alibaba Group, one of the world’s largest online commerce companies, as well as Yunfeng Capital a private equity firm and Yunfeng Capital an asset management firm. Ma was raised poor in a family with no English speaking capabilities; nevertheless he began learning English while conversing with foreign tourists who visited his hometown; later becoming an English guide when visiting Hangzhou.
Ma struggled during his youth to enter college and repeatedly failed the entrance exam for Hangzhou Teacher’s Institute in 1988, where he obtained his bachelor’s degree in English teaching. Following this work as a teacher – earning $15 per month teaching English classes – Ma was finally able to save enough money and establish his first company, China Pages Inc. in 1994.
Ma was eventually promoted to executive chairman of Alibaba before leaving to focus on his philanthropy efforts in 2019.
Ma’s hobbies include hiking, cycling and playing basketball; reading; travel; reading books about world affairs and making appearances on TV shows as a guest expert and hosting his own podcast called Ma Goes West. In 2017 Time magazine named him one of the world’s most influential people.
Ma is known for his strong social conscience and dedication to helping young people in need. He has donated to numerous charities and organizations and provided jobs to disadvantaged Chinese. Ma also supports “996,” an industry standard where workers clock-in nine to nine every weekday from 9 am to nine pm six days out of seven; pledged to create one million US jobs by 2017. In addition to his philanthropy efforts, he enjoys music; appearing in Gong Shou Dao short film. At Alibaba’s 18th birthday celebration he performed Michael Jackson-inspired performance where dressed heavy metal lead vocalist dressed heavy metal lead vocalist a capella with lyrics singing parts of “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?”
Graduated from Hangzhou Teacher’s College in 1988
Ma struggled in school as a young man, failing Chinese college entrance exams twice before finally passing and enrolling at Hangzhou Teacher’s College (now Hangzhou Normal University). There he earned a degree in English before going on to lecture English and international trade at Hangzhou Dianzi University. Additionally, Ma claims he attempted ten times to enroll at Harvard Business School but was always unsuccessful each time – in one sense these events can serve as lessons about success: perseverance is key!
Ma first encountered the Internet in 1994 when he created his own translation agency. Later that year, while on vacation with friends from America he was introduced to it via search for beer; being surprised that no information from China appeared, he and one other created an ugly website dedicated to China together.
Since then, Ma has become one of the richest men on earth and one of its foremost leaders in technology. He is widely respected and highly sought-after among tech professionals for his support of women in tech as well as giving millions to charitable causes worldwide. Additionally, he actively advocates for education issues related to poverty reduction and environmental conservation through public speaking engagements.
He is known for speaking and acting on behalf of various global organizations, which has raised his profile. This includes speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland as well as being featured on CNN as a guest expert. Furthermore, despite President Trump’s protectionist policies on trade he met with him multiple times during meetings.
Fortune reports that Ma is also an avid environmentalist, having taken an interest in it after seeing one of his family members sick with illness possibly linked to pollution. He currently sits on the board of The Nature Conservancy and maintains an 27,000-acre nature reserve in China.
Ma has kept his private life relatively out of the public eye, though he made one public appearance on 20 January 2021 via video link at a charity event and later playing golf on Hainan Island. Ma has one wife whom he met while studying at university: Zhang Ying; together they have two children together.
Founded Alibaba in 1999
Jack Ma established Alibaba Group in 1999, becoming one of the world’s largest business-to-business e-commerce firms as well as an innovator in cloud computing and digital media and entertainment. Ma is also well known as an active philanthropist, boasting an estimated personal fortune of $34.1 billion as of 2020.
Ma was born in Hangzhou, an hour away from Shanghai. As a poor child he learned English by befriending tourists visiting his city. Ma became an outspoken proponent of globalization and against protectionism; furthermore he encouraged young entrepreneurs to be creative thinkers and try new ideas.
He was denied 30 jobs before starting Alibaba in the 1990s. Since its success, Jack Ma has devoted most of his time and efforts to philanthropy – donating over $1.3 billion to assist young people achieve their dreams and realize their goals; as well as founding the Jack Ma Foundation to support charitable causes and education in China.
After graduating from the University of Hangzhou, Ma began his teaching career as an English instructor. He was extremely passionate about his job and believed he could make a positive difference in students’ lives. It was after joining the Chinese Communist Party that his life took a dramatic change – an experience which he described as being like “an awakening.”
Ma and his wife Cathy traveled to the US in 1995 in order to assist a translation firm with recovering its debts, and during this visit discovered the Internet for themselves for the first time. Inspired by its power, he created “China Pages,” an online business in China dedicated to connecting small businesses in Hangzhou with foreign buyers.
After several years, Ma realized the Internet was revolutionizing business operations. He returned to China and founded Alibaba; within four years it became one of the premier business-to-business online marketplaces; Ma eventually sold his stake in Alibaba to Yahoo! for $400 Million in 2000.
IPO in 2014
Alibaba, China’s leading e-commerce company, was one of the biggest tech offerings ever and made Jack Ma the richest man on Earth. A former English teacher who failed two college entrance exams founded Alibaba with 17 friends using $60,000 they raised from investors; since then their improbable rise has earned cult status throughout China as they look up to him as their equivalent of Bill Gates or Steve Jobs.
Ma has an uncanny ability for finding investors willing to support his dreams. When Alibaba first started, Ma would send letters out daily in search of financing from investors; today his letter writing skills have vastly improved but he prefers meeting face-to-face as often as possible. Ma is known for his humble demeanor and down-to-earth personality as well as being an accomplished public speaker who has appeared as a guest on numerous business podcasts.
Ma has amassed not only an investment in Alibaba but also significant interests in China’s Alipay, since purchasing their Chinese version of Paypal. When combined, his stakes total $44 billion!
Ma is known to share his passion for education through frequent public statements about his experiences as a teacher, helping young entrepreneurs, philanthropy (especially The Nature Conservancy), board membership ( including Japan’s SoftBank ) and volunteering roles ( such as volunteering with Children with Special Needs).
Ma was raised in Hangzhou and attended Hangzhou Teachers’ College. Here he met his wife Cathy; together they have three children. Ma has long advocated for China’s economic and entrepreneurial development; appearing as an expert guest speaker at numerous economic development-themed podcasts and conferences worldwide.
Ma’s decision to step down as Alibaba CEO may come as a shock, but his decision makes perfect sense as the company prepares to go public, and he intends to focus more on education in his new position.
