Jack Ma and Alibaba.com
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ICMR HOME | Case Studies Collection
Case Details:
Case Code : LDEN043
Case Length : 14 Pages
Period : 1999-2006
Pub Date : 2006
Teaching Note :Not Available
Organization : Alibaba.com, Taobao.com Industry : E-Commerce
Countries : China
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This case study was compiled from published sources, and is intended to be used as a basis for class discussion. It is not intended to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a management situation. Nor is it a primary information source.
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Background Note
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Ma was born in Hangzhou, a city in China's Zhejiang province, in 1964. He grew
up believing that the world outside China was a terrible place to live in. Ma's
views changed when he traveled to Australia in 1985. He realized that the world
outside China wasn't bad and developed a fondness for the English language. On
his return to China, Ma began learning English by listening to the Voice of
America10 and acting as a guide to
foreigners who visited Hangzhou. In 1988, Ma completed his degree in English
from the Hangzhou Teacher's institute and began teaching English and
international trade at the Hangzhou Electronic and Engineering Institute. In
1992, Ma founded an English translation agency in Hangzhou and soon built up a
good reputation for his language skills.
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In 1995, Ma was sent by a Chinese businessman to Malibu, near Los Angeles, to
mediate in a dispute between the businessman and his American counterpart
who had not put up the money he had promised into the Chinese businessman's
firm. When Ma approached the American, he locked Ma up for a couple of days
in his house.
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Ma could only get out when he promised to get into business with the
American - by starting an Internet company in China with him. This joint
venture never actually happened, but Ma was able to leave and go to Seattle
where he was first introduced to the Internet. He typed 'beer' in the Yahoo!
search and got a number of results. Then he typed 'China' but this gave no
results. This made him decide to start a company to bring information
regarding Chinese companies on to the Internet. After arriving back to
Hangzhou, Ma resigned his teaching job, borrowed US$ 2,000 and started
chinapages.com, China's first commercial website which contained a list of
companies operating in China... |
The Hong Kong media called Ma the 'father of the Chinese
Internet.' Ma then moved to Beijing to work for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign
Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) as the Head of Information Department of
the China International Electronic Commerce Center. Ma designed a website for
MOFTEC. This became the first government website in China.
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