On Feb. 18 some Alibaba board members held a videoconference. The internal task force had uncovered a “systemic” problem. The damage was small, with a total take of maybe $2 million. But it involved more than 2,300 fake storefronts. Moreover, “the company was at risk of developing a culture of pursuing short-term financial gain at all cost,” said Savio Kwan, the lead investigator. Senior management had to take the rap. That weekend Ma called for the heads of Alibaba.com’s CEO, David Wei, and Elvis Lee, its COO, even though neither was charged with any wrongdoing. Ma, who is 46, felt he had to send a message to protect his company’s reputation.

“We are probably the only company in China that senior management takes responsibility,” Ma says, sitting in the seventh-floor VIP reception area overlooking the vast (1.5 million square feet) Alibaba.com campus of seven interlocked buildings. “People think, ‘Jack, you do too much.’ I mean, too drastic. But I believe China needs this.”

That’s because Alibaba’s problems are, in a very real sense, China’s problems. What his country needs, Ma says, is a company the world can believe in–that values people over profits. His goal this next decade is to help 10 million small companies get a boost online, create 100 million new jobs and serve a billion consumers worldwide. Hoping to change the world might register on the cliché meters of Silicon Valley. But it’s sincere enough in China to make Ma something of a rare species. The scandal headlines played to the cynics in a nation steeped in corruption.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: alibaba, e-commerce, IT industry, jack ma
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Given unprecedented access to the TV shows producers, contestants, judges and audience, Schell discovers in China things are often not as they first appear.

For the first time, westerners see Chinese capitalism in its rawest form. Superficially similar to western business, Chinese business culture is unique. Beneath the game shows surface lies a nuanced, subtle view of Chinese business practices, ambitions, ethical norms and competitive behaviors.

Watch the trailer of the film:

More clips from the film:

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: documentaries, entrepreneurs, jack ma, James Fallows
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Although China’s economy is so far faring better than others, domestic trade has slowed, affecting a large chunk of Alibaba’s business – 28.7m of its registered users are in its home market. To soften the blow, Alibaba has facilitated loans in excess of Rmb1bn to SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises] that would otherwise have struggled to get money.

“We do the same thing as Muhammad Yunus,” says Mr Ma, referring to the father of microcredit who won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. “Let’s use the crisis to change the banks.”

But a bigger change for Mr Ma’s own company is the group’s shifting geographic focus. “Before this financial crisis, we were helping China’s products abroad. Now we are thinking about helping SMEs in the other parts of the world. Help them sell across the nations. Help them to sell to China,” he says. “In the next 10 years, we are moving from a pure China exporting centre to a global platform for SMEs to exchange products.”

© Japhet Weeks for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: alibaba, financial crisis 2008-2009, jack ma, microcredit
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As the US election approaches and the Doha round of trade talks has resumed this week in Geneva, there is much debate about the future of global trade and the emergence of China as a trade leader. The timing of the Doha round could not be more significant, as an economic slowdown has given rise to a new wave of protectionist sentiment. Yet it is important for world leaders to resist calls for protectionism and seize the moment to lift trade barriers. Embracing freer trade – with China as an engine of global economic growth – is the best chance to jump-start economies and provide job opportunities in both developed and developing nations.

There are two factors sparking these debates. First, in any economic slump fear can easily give rise to protectionist policies on tariffs and quotas. But these restrictions can be destructive and further slow down the economy.

Second, unease about China’s rise as an economic power has made people think that business and jobs are all moving to that country, but not many know that trade with China is generating employment opportunities for Europe and the US.

© Liu Yong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: foreign trade, jack ma
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Alibaba , the Chinese internet company part-owned by Yahoo , is in late-stage talks with a group of investors to raise the money to try to buy back the multi-billion dollar stake, should Yahoo eventually be acquired by Microsoft .

Alibaba has already lined up two lead investors to back a buy-out and is preparing to enter formal discussions with a wider investment group later this week, according to one person familiar with the situation.

The investors include a Chinese sovereign wealth fund, this person said, adding: “foreign involvement is viewed by government and consumers as undesirable.” A buy-out would also buttress the position of Alibaba founder Jack Ma, already has day-to-day management control of the group.

© Kate Zhao for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: alibaba, jack ma, Microsoft, Yahoo
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Yahoo has eight months to become a better search engine than Baidu or Yahoo will have a hard time surviving in China, said Alibaba CEO Jack Ma, whose company took over all of Yahoo’s China-based assets in August.

“Honestly, when we took Yahoo search, it was not good, and today it’s not good. This is why we are here, to make it better,” said Ma. “If we don’t move fast, within 8-10 months, we won’t have any chance.”

Baidu, China’s top search engine, is “really good,” said Ma, and Yahoo! needs to launch a service that is clearly superior to Baidu.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2005. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: alibaba, Baidu, jack ma, search engines, Yahoo
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The head of the Chinese internet company that recently acquired Yahoo’s China operations has defended the US portal’s decision to help communist authorities track down and prosecute an independent-minded local journalist.

Yahoo has been widely criticised for assisting the case against journalist Shi Tao, who was jailed for 10 years in April apparently for revealing information about government controls on the media…

But Jack Ma, founder and chief executive of Alibaba.com, which took control of Yahoo China as part of a strategic alliance with the US company announced in August, said such criticism was unjustified. “I think it’s unfair to Jerry,” said Mr Ma, one of China’s most high-profile internet entrepreneurs. “Business is business; it’s not politics.”

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2005. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: alibaba, jack ma, Shi Tao, Yahoo
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China’s best-known Internet guru is Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba.com, an e-commerce auction site that pitches made-in-China goods to a global market.

Earlier this year, Yahoo paid $1 billion and handed over its China unit to Jack for a 40 percent stake in his company, turning Jack into a dotcom millionaire a few times over — and Alibaba into the biggest Internet operation in China.

The deal was met with a collective intake of breath from the business world.

Such confidence in a Chinese Internet entrepreneur was unprecedented, leading to Jack being hailed China’s “Internet King.”

Here, he talks to Spark host Kristie Lu Stout about how he feels about bearing that title.

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2005. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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Jack Ma, diminutive and wispy, a boyish former English teacher, does not fit the mold of a man who would attract groupies. Yet he’s constantly surrounded.

Ma has attained cult status as the most famous of an elite group in China — the country’s Internet entrepreneurs. The half-dozen or so men in their 30s hold sway over a booming, homegrown element of the world’s fastest-growing economy.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2005. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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Everything you hear about Jack Ma is improbable. But today, he looks like one of China’s smartest high-technology entrepreneurs.

Yahoo’s huge deal with him Thursday has turned his company, Alibaba.com, into the biggest Internet operation in China, where Internet use is growing at an explosive pace.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2005. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: alibaba, jack ma, Yahoo
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