Chinese Economics Thread
- Thread starter Norfolk
- Start date
solarz
Brigadier
Looks like China doesn't need to invade Siberia after all!
heck it's a lot cheaper and easier to just purchase or invest in siberia
broadsword
Brigadier
The first time I saw his picture, I had to do a double take. Really, he was the CEO of Alibaba? Could it be a mistake of the writer? He did not look like a nerd at all, but a retard!
My friend, the man in the picture, is indeed Jack Ma, or Ma Yun. CEO and creator of Alibaba, whose IPO just became the largest in history.
He is also right now the richest man in China, worth 20 billion USD as of 19/09/14.
The richest man in the world, Bill Gates, is worth 76 billion USD.
Jack Ma is also now the top 10 richest people in the tech industry worldwide.
There's plenty of his speeches on youtube, many of which are in English. If you're interested you can go take a look.
There's a reason why people came up with the phrase "don't judge a book by its cover" I guess
He's one of the legendary icons in the Chinese Internet industry. Even in China.
It's difficult for anyone to succeed without at least some kind of government background or relations with the government. Yet he succeeded.
When the rest of the Chinese Internet were busy copying Western business models, he came up with the idea of Taobao, which allows Peer-to-Peer online business.
Nobody believed he would succeed and as many would say, like one of the the previous comments, that he's a retard. Especially he doesn't have good looks either. He contacted many Venture Capitalists back in the early days of Alibaba, almost all of them thought he's crazy and laughed in his face.
I'm sure they are regretting their guts out now.
Only the creator of SoftBank Masayoshi Sun saw the potential, supported him, and helped Alibaba to grow. Today, Mayasoshi Sun holds 34% of Alibaba's shares, and guess what, with Alibaba's IPO, he too, became the richest man in Japan.
It is no exaggerating that Alibaba has transformed the lifestyle of millions even hundreds of millions of Chinese people. Opening up an online shop became a proper job that people could proudly tell others. Many young college students made a fortune or paid their college expenses through this channel.
Ali-pay, a service similar to Paypal, is the first in China to introduce the model of payment that the merchant only gets the money when the customer has received the good. It works like this, when Ali-pay receives the payment it keeps it first, then it informs the merchant to post the good, and then when the customer receives the good, the money is then transferred to the merchant.
It has become the de facto payment method for almost all online transactions in China. You can use Alipay to pay for your goods purchased online (not just restricted to Taobao), pay for your online games, pay for your games subscriptions, or even pay for taxi and utility and phone bills!
Then there's the 余额宝（yu'e bao), which can be seen as a saving&investment instrument. You can save your money there and is almost guaranteed a daily return (money there can be used in conjunction with Alipay). This has caused millions of Chinese to save their money their, that even the four largest state-owned banks are affected.
There were once rumours that the banks will resort to government forces to take it down. But apparently Premier Li Keqiang were happy to see it as it is so it still works today.
All in all, this "ugly" and "retarded" man has single-handedly, without any government background, created an online business empire that affects almost an entire generation of young Chinese in one way or another.
On a side note, do you know that it has apparently became a popular saying in China that the best way to comfort your girl after a quarrel is to clear her Taobao wishlist, instead of taking her out for a shopping trip?
Because they all shop online, and they all shop on Taobao!
It's difficult for anyone to succeed without at least some kind of government background or relations with the government. Yet he succeeded.
When the rest of the Chinese Internet were busy copying Western business models, he came up with the idea of Taobao, which allows Peer-to-Peer online business.
Nobody believed he would succeed and as many would say, like one of the the previous comments, that he's a retard. Especially he doesn't have good looks either. He contacted many Venture Capitalists back in the early days of Alibaba, almost all of them thought he's crazy and laughed in his face.
I'm sure they are regretting their guts out now.
Only the creator of SoftBank Masayoshi Sun saw the potential, supported him, and helped Alibaba to grow. Today, Mayasoshi Sun holds 34% of Alibaba's shares, and guess what, with Alibaba's IPO, he too, became the richest man in Japan.
It is no exaggerating that Alibaba has transformed the lifestyle of millions even hundreds of millions of Chinese people. Opening up an online shop became a proper job that people could proudly tell others. Many young college students made a fortune or paid their college expenses through this channel.
Ali-pay, a service similar to Paypal, is the first in China to introduce the model of payment that the merchant only gets the money when the customer has received the good. It works like this, when Ali-pay receives the payment it keeps it first, then it informs the merchant to post the good, and then when the customer receives the good, the money is then transferred to the merchant.
It has become the de facto payment method for almost all online transactions in China. You can use Alipay to pay for your goods purchased online (not just restricted to Taobao), pay for your online games, pay for your games subscriptions, or even pay for taxi and utility and phone bills!
Then there's the 余额宝（yu'e bao), which can be seen as a saving&investment instrument. You can save your money there and is almost guaranteed a daily return (money there can be used in conjunction with Alipay). This has caused millions of Chinese to save their money their, that even the four largest state-owned banks are affected.
There were once rumours that the banks will resort to government forces to take it down. But apparently Premier Li Keqiang were happy to see it as it is so it still works today.
All in all, this "ugly" and "retarded" man has single-handedly, without any government background, created an online business empire that affects almost an entire generation of young Chinese in one way or another.
On a side note, do you know that it has apparently became a popular saying in China that the best way to comfort your girl after a quarrel is to clear her Taobao wishlist, instead of taking her out for a shopping trip?
Because they all shop online, and they all shop on Taobao!
broadsword
Brigadier
Equation
Lieutenant General
I could care less what Jack Ma looks like, to me he is an example of an economic success story that started almost from nothing and never gave up his dreams even when he was down. I respect the man's determination and perseverance to bring Alibaba to where it is today.