Jack Ma: The future has come

Chapter 18 Our Responsibilities (1)
1. Solve the problems of these 7000 million people, and more entrepreneurs will be born in China
All of us have been poor. More than 30 years ago, poverty could be seen almost everywhere in China.Chinese people are used to asking "Have you eaten?" This is because Chinese people are afraid of being poor. When they are poor, they can't even eat.However, no country in human history has been able to lift 30 million people out of poverty in just over 6.6 years like China!It's a great initiative, a pretty remarkable one.

No country or era dares to mention these two slogans
Today, we have seen an even more remarkable initiative, which is that the Chinese government will lift the remaining 2020 million poor people out of poverty by 7000.I think it's a pretty remarkable determination.

After the [-]th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, I have been observing various important measures taken by the central government. There are two things that require great courage and determination to make a decision: first, anti-corruption; second, comprehensive poverty alleviation.

Our company has tens of thousands of employees, and I dare not say that our company has no corruption at all.A country has put in so much effort and made such great efforts to comprehensively combat corruption and establish righteousness. I think the pain that this country has endured must be very great.However, because of the anti-corruption campaign, the country's market mechanism will be more perfect in the future, the country's governance will be more transparent, and the country will go further and better.For these bright futures, we must pay some price. Not only government agencies and officials must pay their efforts, but all enterprises should also actively participate in it.Therefore, the Zhejiang Merchants Association group proposed that "Zhejiang merchants will never bribe", hoping that everyone can contribute to the country's anti-corruption work.

In 2020, 7000 million people will be lifted out of poverty in an all-round way. This goal makes me excited!As the first group of people to get rich, we have benefited from the reform and opening up for more than 30 years.In the future, it will be our great honor and blessing to participate in this great battle.What better thing in life than this?
Make money before 50, spend after 50

An entrepreneur once said, make money before the age of 50, and spend money after the age of 50.How can we spend money to help more people and create more job opportunities?

I feel very lucky that I am over 50 years old and still able to run around the world, to listen, to learn, to think, and to do things that I think are beneficial to education, medical care, and the environment.I am grateful to my team. Their hard work has allowed me to still have the opportunity to do these public welfare things after I am 50 years old.

The most precious resource of any company is not money, or machines, or technology, but the founder's and CEO's time.Now that I can spare time to do charity, I personally feel that this is a particularly blessed thing.I hope that all young people and entrepreneurs can work hard and earn money before the age of 50, and learn how to spend money better after the age of 50.But before that, I want to give you a piece of advice: You must let your business survive and develop properly.If your business cannot survive and develop well, then you need others to help you out of poverty.

Undoubtedly, solving the poverty problem of 7000 million people is by no means an easy task, and there must be unconventional thinking and paths.The poverty alleviation and poverty alleviation I understand may not be exactly the same as some people's understanding.In the past, when we mentioned poverty alleviation, we thought of giving money and materials to others, but everyone forgot that poverty alleviation is a continuous process.From poverty alleviation to poverty alleviation and then to prosperity, there are three different stages: poverty alleviation, we teach people how to fish, and solve temporary problems; poverty alleviation, we teach people to fish, give technology, and solve long-term problems The problem; to get rich is to build fish ponds, build fish ponds, and create an ecological environment for fish farming.

We should teach them to build fish ponds, build fish ponds and raise fish. I think this is what we entrepreneurs need to do now.Entrepreneurs do well in three aspects: first, entrepreneurs must have results in doing things, and enterprises without results must have no tomorrow and no future; second, entrepreneurs pay attention to efficiency in doing things, and others only need to do one thing. 10 yuan, but you need 20 yuan, others only use 3 days, but you have to spend 5 days, so there is no chance at all; third, entrepreneurs pursue fairness in their business.Fundamentally speaking, it is impossible for an enterprise to force others to do this or that. Only when it is fair can a transaction be realized.To lift 7000 million people out of poverty, we have to take a different path, we have to go out of yesterday.

Poverty alleviation work is actually not difficult to do, as long as the money is distributed, but how to turn money into wealth and how to make money into wealth for a long time is a huge challenge.There are still many things we can do. It does not mean that everyone must do the same thing. We can do poverty alleviation work from different directions.

Children who do not read well do not necessarily have no future

When it comes to poverty alleviation, I think education is still the most important thing. Only by increasing investment in education in poor rural areas can the country achieve long-term poverty alleviation and prosperity.

It is not only the elite and well-educated people that determine the destiny of a country, but more importantly, the quality of the people at the bottom.If the quality of the people at the bottom is poor, no matter how good the country is, it will not be much better.Therefore, the root of poverty alleviation is to help people, so that people can live independently, understand the future, and be full of ideals.

I believe that everyone hates exam-oriented education.Look at today's children, schoolbags are getting heavier and heavier, and there are more and more exams. Almost all children are kidnapped by exam-oriented education.In my opinion, children do not necessarily have only one way to study, and children who are not good at reading do not necessarily have no future.I'm just a person who can't read.It doesn't matter if you can't read, but you must be able to play. You can be good at sports, music, or art. These are the abilities that make people confident.

In poverty-stricken areas, you will see many left-behind children. Their parents participated in the process of Chinese social development and went to the cities. They stayed in the countryside with their grandparents or lived in boarding schools.These places lack sufficient teaching facilities, and there are also serious problems in educational concepts.Just imagine, 20 or 30 years from now, what kind of impact will these children with lack of education have on the development of Chinese society?
In the process of communicating with more than a dozen principals and dozens of teachers, I saw a huge opportunity.I think we entrepreneurs and people from all walks of life can really do something for China's education, helping a school, a class, even just a student.Rural education should be the biggest breakthrough in China's education. The most lacking in the rural education system is the "music and physical education" teachers. If we can sponsor some music teachers and physical education teachers, these rural children may have a very different life. future.

Doing public welfare, charity, and poverty alleviation does not mean that we are asked to do one big project after another. Small projects can also have a great impact.Doing charity is not how much money you give to others, but how much time you spend influencing others and awakening their conscience.

It is a rare opportunity for China to lift 7000 million people out of poverty
China's e-commerce can develop to today, and Alibaba can develop to today, not because of how smart we are, nor how hard we work. There are many people who are smarter and harder than us in the world, and the entire business foundation There are many countries with better facilities than China, but we have surpassed many people.For example, the commercial infrastructure in the United States is much better than that in China. If you want to do e-commerce in the United States, you must first think about how to compete with Wal-Mart.But it is not necessary in China. What we have to consider is how to compete with the traditional retail industry. Their previous methods are not suitable today.So I think there is a huge opportunity in poor areas.

China has developed for more than 30 years, solved the poverty problem of 6.6 million people, and gave birth to entrepreneurs like us.This is the wealth opportunity created by poverty alleviation.Without poverty alleviation for these 6.6 million people, there would be no take-off of the Chinese economy, let alone entrepreneurs like us.Today many people are complaining about how there is no opportunity and how the economy is becoming more and more difficult. What I want to tell you is that if we can solve the poverty problem of the remaining 7000 million people, I believe that China will still have a number of enterprises , but also create a group of great entrepreneurs.

What is an opportunity?Opportunity is the solution to trouble.Where there is complaint, there is opportunity.As long as you solve these difficulties and resolve these complaints, you will have a chance.Therefore, for us entrepreneurs, lifting 7000 million people out of poverty is not only a pressure, a responsibility, a responsibility, but also an opportunity.What we should do, we must think carefully.

Editor's note:

On August 2016, 8, the forum on "Strengthening East-West Cooperation to Help Poverty Alleviation" was held in Kunming. As the chairman of the Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce, Jack Ma led hundreds of Zhejiang businessmen to participate in the forum and delivered a speech.

2. The contribution of "Double 11" lies in the discovery of domestic demand
In 2014, Tmall launched Global Shopping, which is a pilot project for us this year. We mainly want to prepare for the comprehensive internationalization in three to five years.The internationalization, platformization and wirelessization we are doing now are all preparing for the future.The purpose of wireless is to allow farmers in rural China to have the opportunity to enjoy life in cities and towns. The purpose of internationalization is to hope that small businesses all over the world will one day be able to do business with global consumers online.These two assumptions we are doing.The core idea of ​​platformization is that all kinds of online and offline business organizations and ecosystems can participate in "Double 11".I estimate that in another three to five years, by the tenth anniversary of "Double 11", the whole world will be amazed at the creativity of young people.This year is only the sixth year, and I estimate that with another four years of preparation, the internationalization will come naturally.

How should Ali go after listing

To be honest, Alibaba's listing is not for money, Alibaba's cash flow is very healthy.One of the main reasons for our listing is to make the company's governance more transparent, so that shareholders and users all over the world can supervise this company and jointly participate in the construction of this company.

Due to various reasons, Alibaba has no way to list on China's A-shares.We hope that Alipay or Ant Financial can be listed on the A-share market in the future, allowing more participants to share.I think this possibility is still very high.I want Ant Financial to accept global supervision and make it more transparent and open.

Am I happy with the share price?Is there any good subject matter that can make the stock price go up?I don't care about these issues.I really can't comment on share prices, nor do I want to.I think Ali does not need any subject matter to speculate on the stock price. The real stock price of a company should be down-to-earth performance, long-term strategy and perfect strategy implementation.

I am very nervous now, where does my tension come from?In the past, everyone said that Alibaba was not good at this or that, but I know that Alibaba is actually better than everyone imagined, and we are not as bad as people say; today, everyone has very high expectations of us, but I know that we are not. so good.We have only been in development for 15 years. This company is still very young, the things it does are also very new, and the employees are all young people.Now that we have just been listed, people have such high expectations for us. To be honest, I am under a lot of pressure.

We still have many challenges and difficulties to face.Shareholders may be very happy when the stock price rises, but Ali’s management, Ali’s employees, including me, we should recognize who we are, be ourselves down-to-earth, and earnestly do the job at hand well , earnestly do a good job in the 5-year and 10-year plans.There are still 87 years in the future, and we only hope that we can be down-to-earth today.The more practical we are today, the more likely Ali will go further in the future.

"Double 11" is no longer just a price war
Ali hopes to make some contributions to the entire Chinese economy.We feel that external demand is not a problem, and domestic demand is a breakthrough.We are very lucky to have discovered such a method at this moment to tap domestic demand.We hope to participate in the construction of urbanization in the future and tap the needs of the countryside.We also hope that our technology and this e-commerce platform can help small businesses all over the world, consumers all over the world, and more Chinese women, so that they can buy more good products from all over the world in the next three to five years. thing.

This year's "Double 11" shopping festival, Tmall is not relying on cheap prices to attract people, but to attract people by new products and service innovations.Relying on discounts and low prices to attract consumers is not sustainable and must be changed.I especially hope that if possible, everyone will come every year. Let's see where we can go and what we will be like when the 11th anniversary of "Double [-]" is celebrated.We are all still young, and some things are always beyond our imagination.

Editor's note:

“双11”即每年的11月11日，是指以电子商务为代表的、在全中国范围内兴起的大型购物狂欢日，逐渐成为中国最大规模的商业狂欢活动。2014年，天猫“双11”单日成交总额达571亿元人民币。2014年11月11日晚上，马云来到阿里巴巴总部“双11”新闻发布会大厅，指出阿里未来的第一个试点就是全球化。

3. To the countryside!To the countryside!
The New Year’s Shopping Festival is a festival we create for farmers, and it is also the third festival developed by Alibaba after “Double 11” and “Double 12”.The New Year's Shopping Festival was established in Yan'an, and the apples and dates in Yan'an are the source of inspiration for the New Year's Shopping Festival.

The purpose of our new year's shopping festival is very simple, so that farmers who have worked hard all year can have a good income at the end of the year; so that people in the city can buy a souvenir from their hometown and relieve their nostalgia; and let the courier go home with a big pocket new year.We want to intensify the flavor of the New Year in the city, so that specialties such as millet and dates from northern Shaanxi, apples from Yantai, and bacon from Guizhou can be sold on the Internet, so that people in the city can come to consume them.

In recent years, everyone has become rich, but the atmosphere of Chinese New Year is not as good as before.Everyone asked, where did the New Year's goods go?For the traditional Chinese nation, there is no taste of Chinese New Year without real New Year's goods.The advertisement says "no gifts for this year's festival", but we should say from 2015: we will accept gifts for this year's festival, and only farmers' gifts will be accepted.China is a country of etiquette, where etiquette is less important than affection, and it is a Chinese custom to send New Year's goods to relatives and friends during the New Year.

When we were young, we learned in textbooks that China has a "large land and abundant resources".However, we can't just know that China has a vast land and rich resources, but also let urban consumers know that China's rural areas have quite amazing products.Purchasing these products is in itself supporting the development of the hometown and rural areas.Farmers work very hard, and their hearts are also very bitter.In my hometown of Zhejiang, if the orange harvest is good, the farmers shed tears; if the orange harvest fails, the farmers also cry.If the oranges are sold well in one year, everyone rushes to expand the planting, but the next year they cannot be sold...

Poverty is not because farmers are not diligent, but because agricultural civilization and commercial civilization have not developed synchronously and coordinatedly, and agricultural civilization has not kept up with the development of commercial civilization.Poverty is not because poor counties and villages do not work hard, but because the development model has not kept up.

From "migrant workers" to "farmer businessmen"

The country has put forward the goal of ensuring that the poor get out of poverty as scheduled by 2020.This is a goal that China has never achieved in thousands of years of history, and many people have never thought about it.Anti-corruption and comprehensive poverty alleviation are the most difficult goals proposed by the current government.Since it is proposed, the people of the whole country must work together. As an Internet company, Alibaba, we are honored to be able to participate in this goal and achieve this goal through creativity, creation, and innovation.

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