Alibaba’s former CEO, founder and executive chairman, Jack Ma has become the richest person in China. Jack Ma, who is 50 years old, is estimated to have $25 billion. He has just recently decided to start trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Because of a 38% rise in his company’s stock, he became the richest man in China. Ma’s fortune is mainly made up of his 6 per cent holding in Alibaba and his 46 per cent share in Alipay, a subsidiary of Alibaba. Ma’s net worth is now six times what it was last year: over $4 billion. Alibaba has made more profit than Amazon and eBay together.
Jack Ma used to be an English teacher. He proved to be a very responsible person. He has recently been asked what he wanted to do with his money. His answer was quite astonishing: he is going to try and reduce China’s level of pollution. He said “The polluted water, the airs, unsafe food… 10 years later, millions and millions of people in China will have health problems. So we should invest money on that”. So, he set up a charitable trust, funded by his company, Alibaba, in 2014.
Ma was present on stage at the Clinton Global Initiative’s Annual Meeting in New York City and he talked about the responsibility which comes with having a lot of money: “When you have $1 million, you’re a lucky person. When you have $10 million, you have trouble. When you have more than $1 billion, you have responsibility”. At the Clinton Global Initiative, he was asked whether he was considering taking over USA with Alibaba, as well. Ma said that such a move would require a lot of planning and a strategic shift for Alibaba which, until that point has benefited from a lack of competition in its home country.
[ads2]
Ma credits most of his success with Alibaba to the small and medium sized companies and businesses which trade their products on his company’s web properties, but also to the business landscape in China, where conducting commerce can be extremely difficult. He stated that: “The reason we win in e-commerce in China is because the infrastructure of commerce in China was too bad. Why e-commerce in the U.S. is not that good is because the infrastructure of commerce was so good, that e-commerce is a supplement. In U.S., e-commerce is a dessert. In China, it’s a main course.”