Welcome to the Investors Trading Academy event of the week.
Each week our staff of educators tries to introduce you to a person of interest in the
financial world.
This could be a person in government or banking or an important investors or trader, on just
someone making the financial headlines in recent days.
Just a year ago, the name Jack Ma was unknown outside of China and even at home was only
familiar to those in the world of finance and ecommerce.
Ma is a household name in China and may soon be known among big tech names like Tim Cook,
Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg.
Here’s a look at Ma’s career ascent, from English teacher to global tech titan on Wall
Street.
Ma started Alibaba out of his Hengzhou apartment in 1999.
Today, the company has its hands in a sprawling assortment of online retail marketplaces,
cloud computing services, messaging apps, and video websites, and it generates $2 billion
in profit per quarter.
Ma said that the central focus of his company remains helping small businesses and that
the company will use the $21.8 billion it’s raising in its IPO to further this goal.
Before Friday, Ma was the richest man in China.
After the markets closed, he was one of the richest in the world.
His net worth now stands at more than $18 billion.
He sold 12.75 million shares in the IPO, a fraction of the 206.1 million he owned.
After graduation, Ma was an English teacher for five years.
His salary was 100 to 120 yuan, or about $12 to $15 a month.
On this first visit to the U.S., his friend showed him the Internet and he realized there
was hardly any data on China at all.
Ma says at that point he had never even touched a keyboard, but when he returned home, he
launched an online business directory, China Pages.
Ma and his friends pooled $60,000 to start Alibaba.
Ma says he chose Alibaba because he wanted to create a global company from the start.
He chose Alibaba because it’s easy to spell and because people everywhere know it as the
“Open Sesame” command to unlock doors to hidden treasures.