- Jack Ma's Alibaba goes global.
Shit, what is it?
Singles' Day, sorry.
Jack Ma's Alibaba's Singles' Day goes,
is it Singles' Day?
Singles' Day?
Singles' (bleep)
Singles'--
- Singles', Singles' Day.
- Singles' Day.
- Singles'.
- Singles' Day, one day.
- Goes global with 25 billion in sales, okay.
- [Man] Alright.
- Getting old man, I don't know.
Okay.
- [Man] Uncle Dan.
- Alright, alright, alright.
Jack Ma's Alibaba Singles' Day goes global
with 25 billion in sales.
And we're also gonna talk about
his new action movie,
(speaks in foreign language)
(smooth electronica music)
So 25 billion in sales.
That is a record for sure.
- That's a lot of money.
- I don't know if people can kind of
even comprehend the idea.
Like Singles' Day, first of all,
what exactly is Singles' Day?
What the hell is that?
- Well, it's, in China we call it
(speaks in foreign language)
So it's on November 11th.
And because it's a full one--
- [Dan] So single.
- [Jennie] They all singles.
- [Dan] Yeah.
- [Jennie] It's basically was originally for
the singles in China.
They can buy something for themselves
so they won't feel that lonely.
But then it turns out to become like major kind of event--
- Is Jack Ma the one who came up with that?
Or some marketing guy came up with that
or they always have it?
- [Jennie] No, Jack Ma.
- [Dan] Jack Ma came up with it.
- [Jennie] I'm pretty sure it's from Taobao Alibaba.
- Yeah, so from Taobao,
they came up with a day,
kind of almost an excuse almost like,
just like Valentine's Day or--
- [Jennie] The opposite of it.
- [Dan] Opposite of Valentine's Day.
- [Jennie] Yes.
- [Dan] And if you're single now, it's an excuse for you
to shop to buy something for yourself--
- [Jennie] Yes.
- Or buy something for others.
But then it turns out to be bigger than anything else,
like it becomes a very mainstream thing in China, right?
- I was even shopping online e-commerce here--
- Yeah, like all kinds of sales.
- In North America from all the name brand you name.
Like I saw Nordstrom or more like Saks,
and then they all have oh, Singles' Day!
We have this discount, that discount!
- Now they also using that idea for North America.
- Exactly!
- So there's like, you, that gives us an idea
with the numbers.
They made how much money in just a short period of time?
- So overall, they generated 25 billion
as Dan has mentioned--
- Yeah.
- But 8.6 billion was generated--
- With a b.
- In the first hour.
With a b, billion.
- $8.6 billion in the first hour.
- Mhm.
- So just imagine processing that money.
- Is that in U.S. dollars?
- U.S. dollars.
- This is all U.S. dollars.
- Wow. - Yes.
- It's incredible.
Like in the first hour, right?
And also, this year it goes global.
Now they also, it's not just from China.
It's also people from over the world--
- Yes.
- That they're shopping.
- Yeah, they've opened it up.
So they've kind of welcome a lot of online retailers
from all over the world.
- [Dan] Mm, so people participating.
- [Woman] Yeah, over 200 countries made up
of all the retailers
that were selling on Singles' Day.
So definitely, when they say globalization for Alibaba,
you know, they really opened things up this year.
- What do you think they're trying to do?
- [Jennie] Alibaba?
I think they're trying to dominate the world.
- [Dan] Yeah.
I think truly it's like a world domination.
- [Woman] Well first and foremost,
really compete hard against Amazon.
- Yep.
- 'Cause Amazon is making, of course, you know,
a lot of great gains in all aspects.
- Yeah.
- But you know, Amazon, I think, for the primary,
like they do have a sales day sometimes.
But it's never that--
- But in that, yeah-- - Prime Day.
- The Prime Day.
- Which, not even close.
- Not even close.
- Yeah.
- What Alibaba has achieved.
- There's so much hype around that day.
- I know.
- I think they hyped it so that it's like the Black Friday--
- It is, yeah.
But it just even multiplied,
even like a bigger sale than that.
- Well if you think about it,
China alone has over a billion people.
- Mm.
- So even if they don't sell out of the country--
- Yeah.
- You can imagine the kind of sales they would have.
- And with Jack Ma recently, what he's been doing,
is kind of interesting how he's now,
of course, obviously expanding internationally
now beyond in China.
And also he's now more
focusing on getting more publicity.
He always gets a lot of publicity.
- Yes.
- But like, you know, the new,
the team was like the celebration,
the annual celebration--
- Right.
- For his company.
He dressed up like Michael Jackson.
- Yes.
- You saw that, right? - Yes.
- What do you think of that?
("Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson)
(audience applause)
(audience cheering)
(dramatic music)
- You know what, I think I can give a lot of respect
to him, for you know, being the top leader of the business.
- Yeah.
- And communicate that, you know what,
we work hard but we know how to play hard.
- Hmm.
- And we know how to have fun.
- Mm.
- And when we have fun, you know,
it builds up the culture, it builds up the community.
And Jack Ma has time and time again,
talks about how important that is
to making Alibaba successful.
- And his new movie, (speaks foreign language),
GSD, kind of like JKD, but--
- [Jennie] Yeah.
- GSD.
Why did he make that movie?
'Cause we kind of talked about it.
And I watched it because I'm a Kung Fu fan.
He got involved with the,
Donnie Yen is in it.
Tony Jaa is in it.
Jet Li is in it.
So yeah, a lot of these like top martial arts superstar
in the movie.
It's not actually a movie.
It's like a short film, 20 minute or so, quite short.
And--
- But it's movie quality.
- It's movie quality obviously.
And after I watch it,
and I wasn't sure what's the purpose of that.
Now--
- [Jennie] It's actually the ending, right?
- [Dan] The ending.
- [Jennie] It was showing the moves.
- [Dan] And I was like, okay,
is he promoting a product, his company?
Is he promoting himself?
Is he promoting--
- [Jennie] Like a martial arts.
- [Dan] Or is it a trailer for a bigger movie coming up?
- [Jennie] Yep.
- [Dan] Like I wasn't sure what's the purpose of it.
And so I pondered on that because I'm a big fan of Jack Ma.
Like if you go to my library,
you'll see I have a lot of Jack Ma books
and books about Jack Ma, right?
I love the way he, just the way he thinks about things
and views business and the world.
That's amazing.
And he's of course, out of a lot of different entrepreneurs
who I resonate with, as a Chinese entrepreneur,
he's also very articulate speaker.
He's a phenomenal teacher.
'Cause he was an English teacher.
So I resonate a lot with that.
So this is just my personal opinion,
why he does these things.
I think it's because when he had no money,
they were just getting started at the time,
he was faced with a lot of rejection.
Keep in mind he still isn't,
but he wasn't a good looking guy, right?
So, also short.
So you can imagine in China,
like a lot of people,
they probably don't treat him very well.
Probably give him a lot, a very hard time.
- Yes.
- And now, he has the power.
He has the money.
I think he made this movie, in a way,
kind of to fulfill his dream?
- I would say so.
- Fulfill his dream to say I am,
now he has money, but now he also has,
he's a star, right?
- [Victoria] Yes.
- He has enough money
to get all these people involved, right?
- [Jennie] He can be the center--
- [Dan] The center.
- [Jennie] Of all these stars.
- [Dan] With enough money, he can even be Donnie Yen, right?
(Jennie laughs)
He's so powerful.
Tony Jaa?
No problem!
Boxing champion?
No problem!
- Even Jet Li!
- Jet Li, he can beat everybody with enough money.
- Like, when's the last time you saw Jet Li--
- In a movie?
It's been a long time.
So he's able to utilize his connection
to be able to do that.
And even at the end, he sang a song together with Faye Wong.
When was the last time Faye Wong sang--
- Faye Wong is a top pop star in China--
- Like the number one.
- For the past 20 years.
Huge.
- Yeah, and very difficult to get.
Impossible to get, basically.
- Yeah, she write and release a song
every two years or something.
- Yeah, it's been a long time
since release a new song, right?
- Yeah, that's huge.
- So they sang together
and at the end he even got some kind of a videos
from other celebrity from Hollywood, right?
Kind of challenging him
and hey man, I'm gonna get you.
The whole thing.
- [Victoria] Jason Statham from The Transporter.
- [Dan] Yeah, so that's pretty interesting.
It's kind of like The Fast and the Furious at the end.
I'm gonna get you, right?
- [Woman] Yes.
- [Dan] It feel like that kind of thing.
So I think that's why he made that.
Just to fulfill his dream.
I think that same thing with the Michael Jackson thing.
It's like, he knows he can't dance.
He knows it's gonna look awkward,
but I think he actually,
now he has the money, has the influence.
I think he enjoys that star status,
I think personally.
- Mhm.
- That's how I see it, right?
So he has the money, he has the fame,
but he wants a different kind of fame.
- Do you think it's also because
he practice a lot of Tai chi?
- He does, he does.
- And then he and Jet Li, I think they have a foundation
about tai chi and they want to spread the tai chi.
- Yeah, but it wasn't a very clear message.
He could have made it more clear.
- But at the end, he shows a little--
- It's almost like
he's promoting his own style
of new martial art called (speaks in foreign language)
- [Jennie] Oh yeah, that's--
- [Dan] He's got the codes, principles at the end, right?
In the ending scene.
Plus the name of it,
it feels like are you trying to set up a new style?
A new--
- [Jennie] New cult.
- [Dan] Like, yeah, a new karate style.
New Chinese kung fu style, like you know, Wei Chun,
like he wants, it's almost like that.
But he's not, it's obviously, he's not.
So that's why the whole thing is a bit strange.
The only thing it makes sense to me is like,
hey, you know what?
This is what I wanna do.
So screw you guys, I'm just gonna do it.
- No, I think also, I think firstly, this movie--
- It promotes it.
- It's only 20 minutes.
- Yeah, it promotes Singles' Day, right?
- Yeah, it's a trailer for the Singles' Day.
- Yeah, yeah.
- And another thing is, with Jack Ma,
he's basically, you know, like the Alibaba whole group,
they're moving towards the Hollywood movie industry.
- True, true, true, true, true.
- So he's showing I can get all those Chinese top stars--
- Yep, that makes sense.
- To be in a movie with me.
- That makes sense.
- Because he's the biggest, of course, right?
So it's also like doing a little bit of marketing
for the movie production side.
But the third thing is
I think he wants to spread the tai chi.
I think if you could really understand Chinese,
and you know, in the end he shows a little bit his theory,
of philosophy--
- Philosophies, yeah.
- And about the tai chi--
- Which I like, yeah, I like.
- And then it just mix so well with business.
- Mhm.
- Yeah.
- And maybe at the end of the day,
he's just a guy that's just trying to fulfill his dreams.
- Yeah, I think it's a little bit of both.
- That's probably 50%.
- I think, yeah, so it promotes Singles' Day, right?
It promotes kind of the whole video production company,
right, it shows what he could do, right?
And then he has a little bit of fun.
That too, right?
- Yeah.
- And then also promote tai chi
and also maybe gets him awareness
for the sport and foundation.
I think it's all of those things.
So you know, Jack Ma is very, very interesting.
If you want us to make more videos about Jack Ma,
maybe just share some of his principles on business.
Because I think a lot of videos even on YouTube,
that it's not,
they have Jack Ma's interviews
and also have people talking about Jack Ma.
But a lot of those guys,
I don't think they study his life very deeply.
- And I think you need people do dissect--
- Dissect what he said--
- Understanding the purpose.
- And what exactly does that mean.
So if you're interested, comment below.
Let me know.
Give me a thumbs up.
We can make a future videos in Decode China about Jack Ma.
I can talk about Jack Ma all day, right?
So, I'm such a big fan of what he does.
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