Meet Jack Ma

If all goes according to plan, Alibaba’s founder, CEO and de facto emperor Jack Ma will shortly become the most powerful man in eCommerce on earth. His net worth will balloon to somewhere around $15 billion and he’ll become bigger than Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.

You may want to read his story, it’s an informative one…

At the resplendent China World Hotel in Beijing, scores of cameras snapped as colorful confetti floated down from the ceiling. It was Aug. 11, 2005, and this was the global coming-out party for Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce upstart. After months of frantic negotiations, the American Internet giant Yahoo had agreed to invest $1 billion in cash and create deeper business ties, in exchange for a 40 percent stake in Alibaba.

Alibaba’s founder, Jack Ma, thin, energetic and standing just over five feet tall, was beaming. He gushed that it was China’s Valentine’s Day and this was a beautiful match: “You’d be foolish if you said no.” It was his coming-out party too; the partnership would pave the way for Alibaba to become an international juggernaut.

Keep Reading:

The Jack Ma Way (New York Times)