Jack Ma: The future has come

Chapter 31 Dialogue with the World (8)
Ma Yun: I am very grateful to all investors.At that time, many people thought Jack Ma was crazy, and they didn't understand what you were doing.Many venture capitalists gave money because there was already an American model at that time, and they only needed to move to China.However, the United States does not have a model like Ali.When I first appeared in Time magazine, they called me Jack Ma.I think it's good to be crazy, we're a little bit crazy, but we're not stupid.If everyone thinks your model is good, then we have no chance.

We raised money, which I'm grateful for, and if investors get paid, I'm proud.

Charlie Rose: There are big privacy issues in the United States, such as the privacy issues of Google and Apple.Someone asked, should the government get the data?What do you do if the government comes to you and says they want to get the data?
Ma Yun: So far, I have no troubles in this regard.If the Chinese government comes to me, about national security, about terrorism and fighting crime, we can cooperate.But the rest, no.Data is too important, once leaked, it is a disaster.

Years ago, people said, I'd rather keep my money under my pillow than in the bank.But today, people know that banks know how to keep money better than you.

Privacy issues, we may not have a better solution at the moment, but I believe that young people will have breakthroughs in privacy and security issues in the next 20 years.I totally believe it.

where does your belief in life come from
Charlie Rose: Your life is a living testimony that "anything is possible", and if someone says "no", you say "this is the beginning, take it easy".Where does this belief come from?
Jack Ma: When I was young, I thought everything was possible.But now, I know that not everything is possible.You need to think more about others, society, customers, employees and shareholders.

I'm always motivated by what we do.In the first 3 years, we had zero profit.But we're very excited about what we've done, we've changed a lot of people's lives.Do you know what happened?I went to a restaurant to eat, and when I got the bill, I found out that someone had paid for it for me.The owner of the restaurant came up to me and said, "Sir, your order has been buried by someone else. Here is his message." This small note said: "Mr. Ma, hello, I am Alibaba Group I have made a lot of money through the Alibaba platform, and I know that Alibaba is not profitable yet, so I pay for it for you.”

I still remember one thing.I was in a cafe one day and a guy came up and handed me a cigar, I don't smoke cigars, and I saw a note on the cigar that said, "Thank you, I'm your customer."

Another time, when I took a taxi at the Shangri-La Hotel in Beijing, the doorman who opened the door for me said to me: "Jack, thank you very much, my girlfriend has made a lot of money through your website."

So, these things let you know your calling.If you don't do this, nothing is possible; if you start, at least you have hope.

Charlie Rose: Do you earn from advertising and trading commissions?
Ma Yun: Compared with the huge transaction volume, the advertising revenue is very small, and the transaction commission is also very small.We rely on the masses.Now there are 1000 million small and medium-sized enterprises on our website, and the transaction volume is second only to Wal-Mart.We've gotten pretty big just by generating a little bit of revenue from transaction volume.

I remember that 5 years ago, the senior management of Wal-Mart came to Hangzhou and said to me: "Jack, we know that you have done a big business and done well." I said: "Maybe in 10 years, I will surpass Wal-Mart .” He smiled and said, “Young man, you are very ambitious.” So, I made a bet, now I believe that 10 years later, we will definitely surpass Wal-Mart.If Wal-Mart wants to add 1 new customers, it needs to build new warehouses and many supporting facilities, but for Alibaba, it only needs to add two servers.

Now who has a higher market value, us or Wal-Mart?I don't know, have to look it up.

For future development, what do you want to do

Charlie Rose: What do you want to do going forward?
Ma Yun: I want to talk about Alibaba's mission.We are an Internet company that happens to be founded in China.We share the same entrepreneurial spirit as everyone else in the world.I always remember that my mission when I founded Alibaba was to make it easier for small and medium-sized enterprises to do business.Today, millions of small and medium-sized businesses use our platform to sell their products, and more than 3 million consumers shop on our website.Our website is efficient and cheap.

So, I am now thinking about how to turn Alibaba into a company that makes it easy for the world to do business.

My idea is that we can have merchants in Norway sell their products to Argentina, and consumers in Argentina can buy Swiss goods online.So, I want to create an organization, which is eWTO, maybe the name is not very accurate. The WTO is a very great organization in the last century. There are many big companies in this organization, which sell their products all over the world.Today, however, the Internet helps small businesses sell their products across continents and oceans, beyond national borders.I hope to serve 20 billion consumers and 1000 million small businesses outside the Chinese market.Just like we helped farmers in Washington, USA, and helped them sell 300 tons of cherries to China.I remember the American ambassador said to me: Jack, can you help us sell American cherries?I said: why not?Let's try it together.

In fact, when we started selling these cherries from the United States, the cherries were still growing on trees on American farms.We did a pre-sale on our platform, and 8 Chinese families ordered these cherries.Within 48 hours of the sale, the cherries flew from the trees to the homes of the Chinese families who made the reservations.We sold the cherries and the customers were very happy.However, three days later, we also received a lot of complaint letters: why can't we provide more cherries to consumers?
Two months later, we introduced Costco, we sold 300 tons of American nuts to Chinese consumers, and we also sold seafood from Alaska to China.So, you see, if we can sell American seafood, cherries, and nuts to Chinese consumers, why can't we help small and medium-sized enterprises in the United States, Europe, and more countries sell their products to Chinese consumers?
Chinese consumers want these goods.This is what I want to do. 20 billion consumers from Asia and developing countries, how do we make it easy for them to shop online globally?
Charlie Rose: Alibaba has witnessed hundreds of millions of Chinese people move from poverty to middle class.How about your international expansion?I know you are doing well in Russia.

Jack Ma: We are doing very well in the markets of Brazil and Russia.In the Russian market, we are among the top [-] e-commerce platforms.You can't imagine that for a Russian order two years ago, it took four months from placing the order to receiving the goods.Despite this, there are still many Russians who are very happy to buy Chinese goods through our website.Last year, we had a promotion in Russia, and through our efforts, we shortened that to a week.However, we have paralyzed the entire logistics system in Russia.

Charlie Rose: What are you going to do in Hollywood?
Jack Ma: I like Hollywood innovation and digital technology.I learned a lot from Hollywood movies, especially Forrest Gump.I like the spirit of Forrest Gump, simple and never give up.People think A-Gump is stupid, but A-Gump knows what he is doing.

When I came to America in 2002 or 2003 or earlier, I was very inspired.At that time, I couldn't find a path to e-commerce. At that time, I watched the movie "Forrest Gump".I think he is the one we need to learn from!Believe that what you are doing is right, whether people like it or not.

I really like that line, "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what the next one will taste like".Like I never would have imagined that one day I'd be sitting here talking to Charlie Rose.However, I do it now.I said to my brothers who were starting a business in my apartment at that time: Brothers, we must work hard, not for us personally, but because if we succeed, then 80% of young people in China will succeed.

We didn't have a rich dad or a powerful uncle, we didn't have money in the bank, we had no government connections, it was just a team effort and we made it.

what is your biggest worry

Charlie Rose: What's your biggest concern?
Ma Yun: I am worried that many young people will lose their fighting spirit and enthusiasm and start to complain.We went through the same experience at the time, and it was not a good feeling to be rejected by a lot of people.We were depressed and hopeless at the time, but we believed that there were many opportunities in this world.We start to see the world, learn how to be successful, how to seize opportunities.Hollywood inspires me a lot.

Charlie Rose: You want to do business in Hollywood?

Ma Yun: We are an e-commerce company, and many products need to be shipped, but movies and TV products do not need to be shipped, and movies are the best product to help young people.

In American hero movies, heroes look like bad guys at first, but when something bad happens, they become heroes, and they all survive in the end.In Chinese movies, when the heroes die, no one wants to be a hero.

Charlie Rose: Are you still reading martial arts novels?Still started writing?
Ma Yun: I read martial arts novels, and now I am starting to write something.

When I am busy and tired, I will read martial arts books.I found that as long as you have a good team, a good master, and practice hard, you will become a master of martial arts.So, when I am tired, when I am busy, I will read martial arts books.

Charlie Rose: You learn Tai Chi, right?
Jack Ma: I love Tai Chi.Tai Chi is a philosophy that teaches you how to maintain balance.People ask: When you compete with eBay, do you hate eBay?I said no, eBay is a great company, he hits here, I hit there, he hits me above, I hit him below, he comes and goes.I'm younger than him, but I can jump up and he can't.

I use Tai Chi philosophy when doing business: calm down, there must be a way out.To maintain balance.

Competition is interesting. A shopping mall is not a battlefield. It's not about you dying. Even if you die, I may not be able to live.

Charlie Rose: You wanted Alibaba to change the world, and you did.You also believe that Alibaba can change women's lives, how do you do it?

Jack Ma: I believe that to change the world, you must first change yourself. Changing yourself is more important and easier than changing the world.Then, I want to improve the world.Changing the world may be what Obama's team does. My job is to make my team happy, because my team is happy, my customers are happy, and small and medium-sized enterprises are happy, so I can be happy.

One of the secrets of our success is that we have a lot of women on staff. Before the IPO, an American reporter interviewed our company and said: There are many women in your company.I asked: what's wrong?47% of our employees are women, which used to be even higher, because the acquisition of other companies has suppressed the proportion.We have 32% women in management and 24% women in senior management.We have female chief talent officers, female chief financial officers, female chief customer officers.I feel comfortable working with a female partner.To win in the 21st century, you have to drive others, you have to make others successful.Ensuring that others are more successful is the source of your success.I've found that women have a gift for being more considerate of other people's feelings and being better at doing things that are user friendly.

Charlie Rose: Are you worried about China's economic slowdown?

Jack Ma: I'm not worried. China's economic slowdown is much better than maintaining a 9% growth rate.China is the second largest economy in the world, and it is impossible to maintain a growth rate of 9%.If it continues to grow at a high speed, there must be a problem, and the blue sky will never be seen.China should pay attention to the quality of economic growth, just like when a person grows up, he should not only grow his body, but also improve his inner self-cultivation, cultural quality and wisdom.China is heading down this road.

Charlie Rose: You're already one of the richest people in the world, and your company is already one of the richest companies in the world.Besides Ali, what else do you want to do?
Ma Yun: In the past three months, I was not happy. When people said Ma Yun was the richest man in China, I was not happy. 15 years ago, in my apartment, my wife was one of Ali's 18 founders.I asked her, do you want your husband to be rich or respected?Of course respected people, she said.Because she doesn't believe that I will be rich, and I don't believe that I will become rich.We just want to survive.

I think, when you have 100 million, this is your money; when you have 2000 million, you start to have troubles, worry about inflation, and worry about where to invest; when you have 10 billion, This is the trust that society gives you, believing that you can manage money better and spend it better than others.Today, I have the resources to do more, the money and the influence to invest more resources in young people.

I hope to go back to school one day to teach, teach young people, and share my story with young people.The money isn't mine, I'm just glad I have the resources and I want to do better.

I don't think there are many people in the world who have been rejected 30 times.All I have is persistence, like Forrest Gump, I don't complain, no matter success or failure.If a person always complains about others after failure, then this person will never succeed; if he keeps introspecting himself, then he has hope.

(End of this chapter)