Jack Ma and Charlie Rose Gateway '17 Fireside Chat

please welcome Jack Ma [Applause] [Music] nice crowd thank you what brings you to Detroit this small business to intrapreneurs um I think I've been expecting this day for a long long time when I started my business I tried to sell my products ideas and to the outside the world especially I have a lot of friends who doing import/export they all small business ten years ago they could not go because they don't have visa they don't have money they don't this I don't have that and I said someday I hope Alibaba can build up a platform that all the small business can sell cross board easily efficiently and cheaply so after ten years things like that we just started so you hope that they take away from this meeting an idea that there's this huge market in China yes and people who want to buy what they sell yep I hope that as I say in the past 30 years USA domestic consumption where's the engine of global economy and I told the people at that time is say if you miss the opportunity of selling your products to the world to the USA to the Europe you may miss the chance and today I want to tell the people that if you miss the opportunity of selling your products to China you will miss the opportunity you miss the future next year China would be a larger market than all of the markets combined these single biggest market in the world but you said an interesting thing to me as we talked you said I want everybody in this room to know that if I can do it yeah you can do it yeah when I started my business 1995 it was very difficult I had an idea I invited the 24 of my friends in my apartment because that year I went to see Otto first time my first trip to the USA in Seattle I discovered Internet and I think this thing in the future may change the world so I'm about the encounter with the internet when you first saw it I went to the CRO and a friend of mine he had a small office with like a four or five computers I never touched computer in my life before because computer was so expensive to me and so complicated but my friend said this is Internet just to type in whatever word you want to Tabata no no too expensive I don't know which one to do even now I don't know how it computer works but he said Jack it's not a bomb just to type or whatever so the first word I typed in was a beer bei beer I don't drink I don't know why a type of beer I found American beer German beer Japanese beer no China so I typed the word China there's no information but China so say hmm what if we can make some China information on the internet that people know about China so that was the idea so I came back to China and say I want to resign from my school you were teacher I was a teacher I've been teaching in the university for six years so I said I want to do it I invited to do four of my friends to my apartment after two hours of explain what I'm going to do Internet and 23 of them say forget it you say this thing never worked because there's no such thing called internet in the world you know nothing about a computer so why you want to do this and only one people he said Jack if you want to try it just to try it but if you something wrong just to come back and after whole night thinking I say I still want to do it because most of the people they have a fancy ideas in the evening but it when they wake up in the evening on the morning they go back to do the same job we have to do something different so from there I started my business following two thousand US dollars from my relatives and friends but balance to my trip I call myself like a blind man riding on the back of blind Tigers and those people who are expert of riding horses they all fall down and I'm still surviving was at the beginning of Alibaba that's a beginning of China Paige's Alibaba was 1999 since 1995 a steady business I almost feel every projects never survived so 1995 I got ideas say if I china is going to join WTO a lot of Chinese products is going to sell across the board so if I can make a site that can help Chinese products selling outside and helping the small business in the other country sell to the other part of the world that was the concepts of 1999 I said I'll leave up in my apartment you had said to me before also that in your mind 1 2 3 is customer yeah employee and shareholder yeah so when you try to borrow that $2,000 you didn't tell that person that he was number 3 well the $2,000 was from my my relatives my parents and all the the all of friends I got I got $2,000 but when I raised my money for IPO even for the when Alibaba IPO in the New York Stock Exchange we raised 20 billion dollars I told the investors we've been believing custom number one in pride number to share her number three and people say this is against our American investor philosophy I remember one of the investors said hey Jack you know if I know you are shareholder 3 I will not buy I would not have bought your stocks as they sir please sell it because I believe there are so much money in the world there are too much money in the world but I only only need the money who believe in our vision and mission because I believe if the customer happy in price are happy the shareholders will be happy but if you if the shareholders happy may not necessarily customer happy and may not necessary your employee will be happy when you look how important has two things trust and culture been well Trust is the most important thing as we discussed this few minutes ago if people give me when I had no money because when Alibaba started eighteen founders in my apartment I told everybody say put your all your money savings on the table leaving the money for full ten miles food and room you know rent guess that the money you have put on the table I want to gather the money and nobody should have borrowed the money from parents nobody should borrow money from friends because I don't want to make your parents and friends bankrupt because doing all the bother so eighteen people we gathered fifteen thousand US dollars we studied Alibaba in my apartment and those people actually none of us has money but if somebody say I give you 1 million US dollars and I give you trust which one I would choose I choose those people who give me the trust because it's the trust that make make us be United it's the trust I think 18 founders they trust me because they trusted me I have to be very loyalty to them and lo you to the mission that that we have I think a lot of entrance of know that I hate people work for me me I wanted people work for the mission that we agree together because you don't want people work for me because people like me when it looks we look further this guy's a haniss and when get closer is so ugly everybody in the world the same you should not get closer further it's good so you think our Jack is great but do you know if you get closer not necessarily I will be angry I were happy I'm happy I got but when people trusting you you that's the most valuable things I think later when we got a lot of vent venture capitalists invested us the thing they noticed is that because my team trusts me and I trust my teams so this is the truck the other is about a culture I think the knowledge base to period if you want to have a smart people work for you the smart people need to be managed by culture not by rules and laws so in our company we spend most of the time about the culture and the base of the culture is the trust so this is this is what we believe China has changed think back in 1995 when you in Seattle 1999 how has it changed between 1999 when you started Alibaba and today in 2017 well when I went back to China 1995 was an idea of Internet was very stirring China was not connected to the Internet so I tried to talk to a lot of my friends that what is internet nobody say ah this thing never work this thing never exist um because it true because nobody but people even see jack is alive because he's trying to steal money from people telling us there is an internet so when I go to when I go to the China red company registration office I said I want to register company called Council hope Internet company the guy look at me say this is the English dictionary tell me there's no there's no word called Internet why you want that register company called the internet so I cannot register name a company name but it I in 1995 a later sucked orders to China was connected to internet I was number seven person connected in China Internet in order to prove I was not lying I invited my friend who is a TV man take the TV camera they all stay in my home and we they just try to take the picture I died from a Hanzo to Shanghai Shanghai to America to connect the Internet it took us three hours and a half to download the first of rather page at that time there is no Ness kid called the music oh so I have to make like a hundred stars to keep my journalist two friends to stay and wait because the proof that I'm not telling a lie so how big is Alibaba today today from 99 and we have 18 founders to now we have a close to 60,000 people ourselves called gmv last year's over 550 billion US dollars and it's just a beginning we will probably go cross one trillion US dollars in three years in three years or at least 2020 that's the no I would say in three years is yep 2020 that's the 20 year anniversary of Alibaba um this is thing this thing does not happen in 18 days or 20 days when we started year 2003 when I launched the power bound team all was funny we got it seven founders for tamo chemo or tap out I said everybody go home pick up a fourth looking for four things that on the website so we we see who will come to buy how much things we can sell so we can't we went home we can add a find everybody cannot find the four things that in the home we can sell because we're too poor so we gather 21 products we listed on a website we've waited for three days nobody come to spy and then the next week we got we start to buy and sell ourselves for the first week all the all the sales was a man ourselves and then another week later somebody start to test himself for almost 30 days everything people sell we all buy them so we have a whole house of rubbish we bought on our life try to making sure that so those guys who sold were able to sell say oh wow this thing really can sell things there more people start to come to sell and then we serve better and that comes so from there to now 550 billion dollars market cap is what market cap Joe's like thirty three hundred and fifty billion that's 160 yeah building something yeah some people when they think about getting on the internet and trying to reach foreign markets whether it's China or India or somewhere else worried about counterfeiting they worry about fake products under selling them when they're not the real thing how do you deal with that how do you reassure them like any entrepreneur when you start a business you start to worry and people around you worry much more than you do when I start a Li Baba my parents worry my wife worry my friends were in my teachers warning my students were everybody worried and they worried about a lot of things the only thing that I worry is that I should not disappoint the people who believe in me and when we study the Alibaba we have a lot of things people work well you know where we study Alibaba say hey you know the payment you never trust people do not have believing online they believe in face-to-face meeting and government does not support internet nobody supported ecommerce how could you do it I think as an entrepreneur if everything is ready that does not need you because nothing is ready that needs intrapreneurship but counterfeit things of course there are lot at the beginning but you have to fix it so in the past of 15 years we spent a lot of time because you have to making sure the customer feels safe happy the brand of you happy the reputation is their reputation your reputation is the best otherwise the people say I fell on the site and my things are copied and the crystalline so we using a lot of ways to do that today more than a hundred thousand brands partner with us and I think we are today I assure all the SMEs here we are the company online today the leader on empty counterfeit and IP protection because we put we know there are three things these things that would make our site die three things that would be the cancer of our business counterfeit IP and cheating so a lot of things to worry about doing business we also worry about people cannot receive money if you sell things nobody will if you cannot receive the money you'll be cheated so we're using a leap a we're using all the ways we do to try to making sure that SME can easily sell either receive the money and customer service is good when you create a lot above it there were three things you said about it I want to talk about the comparison with Amazon you said will be asset like you said will be a platform not a retailer difference from Amazon and you said would play on the world stage why did you decide to go that direction a transactional company okay I think the difference emma's is a great company they they did a fantastic job in America and the world but they are ecommerce company we are not an ecommerce company we help others to become ecommerce we believe every cup every company can be Amazon we try to empower the small business a marketplace they can reach their customers we try to empower the companies with logistics so they can deliver things quickly and its cost effective we try to empower this everything every small business when do they do ecommerce they can easily receive and the money and this is all about and we know that we this company was we made so much money in the past eight years but we think this is all because of small business and the money we made we want to share that we want a build of an infrastructure of Commerce so going global is so important we should have help help not only Chinese company we should help the global company so today Alibaba come to America we go when we go to you our CEO today is in Europe we also have a lot of colleagues Southeast Asia we think we are not we are not globalized Alibaba we are globalized ecommerce we try to making sure ecommerce infrastructure the payment the marketplaces and the logistic can making sure everybody today can compete with Amazon Microsoft IBM this is what we want you've also been involved in you made some really important acquisitions along the way where do you see al abama going over the next 10 years the already in Hollywood yep you're in the eye in the cloud I mean you're doing things that beyond the transactional basis of your business we do business we go from marketplaces to payment to logistic and to clout not because we think there are money there we believe if we build a marketplaces if we don't have the payment solutions our customers cannot do it transactions where we are the payment we know if we don't have a logistic we cannot do we cannot they cannot finish the transactions and when we have a lot of transactions we say if we don't have a cloud computing the cost of IT for our customers too expensive so we do all these things not because we think there's money there because we know if we don't do there our customer cannot finish their job that their work our amazing is a healthy doing business easier so our company must be amazing and vision driven why we are on the Hollywood I mean the entertainment because we think 10 20 years later we have to know one thing the world and everybody no matter how rich you are you want to be or how successful you are how successful you are the most important thing is happy and healthy which called double-a chess strategy healthy and happy yeah so now in this next 10 years we are very confident about everything we are doing our marketplaces ecommerce will keep on growing our our financing will keep on growing logistic keep on growing a cloud computer will come growing and then when we have that much money how can we help the small business when they do business their business are happier and healthier so that's why so we do not think we are company we think we are economy today a lot raba is an economy alibaba's economy a rise of Argentina's economy there were our gmv last year 550 billion dollars is ranked as almost like a Giunta nerve we are ranking number 21 22 country a GDP wise and a next 2-3 years will be go across one trillion dollars and we hope in 20 years by year 2036 we will be the fifth largest economy of the world that is America China Europe Japan and there is economy we believe that economy there will be a virtual economy that every small business of the world can leverage the economy they can sell their products cross the world every consumer of every country they can buy things for their mobile phone or any advice for all all of the world everything they place on the line within 72 hours they will receive it so this is our vision of course Alibaba does not own that economy we want join the force with all the partners to build that economy so it's never crossed your mind that maybe we should own a lot of assets that we should have an inventory that we should engage somehow beyond what we do in terms of making things no I think the whether we should have inventory or not inventory depends on whether our customer needed if our customers say Jack you should have Beauty more warehouses would build a warehouses if the customers if our partner does have the capability of doing things that our business needed we'd do it we do it not because as we do it not because there are some money we do it because it is necessary do your competitors primarily come from China Tencent the others I think who do you see as your competitor who does that though competitor I don't know I don't know yeah you know we have competed with Chancellor here we competed with Amazon there we competed but to me I think it's to only next to 30 years internet is good ecommerce is as we change the water so it's like a I've been saying this to my team think when we were in the apartment well we in an apartment I say guys in next 10 years or in in the future Alibaba will be the top 10 websites of the world and my founders look enemy say what is ten number ten name today where regulator five hundred million something at the back hey we have to believe it and then I told the team that Internet is like ten thousand meters running raising we just have finished the first 100 meters yet do not think the people need beside you is a competitor running for another three thousand meters then you know who is a competitor we are good today we may not be good if we lose our hope if we lose our vision you lose your culture if we lose our culture and team we're nothing most of the company that was so good when Netscape was so good we never thought would disappear Yahoo was good we never thought like it today so don't believe you'll be good all the time be paranoid yeah what was that Andy Grove said yes only the paranoid survive so I think I think it's always epic as the young entrepreneurs do not think your neighbor Tommy is a competitor I think look I think that the the thing you do is do not a focus your eyes on the competitor as you are too small to focus yourself on your neighborhood competitive focus your customers make your customer happy it's important most of the big companies when they talk they talk about competitors I think I am I suggesting one day giving you guys when you go become a bigger the China most of the American companies Internet companies filled in China one of the reasons is that they spend too much time on making their boss happy rather than their custom happy they've spent too much time on competing not long term strategy so as the enterpreneur the always number one number one priority is customer and employee what's your role at the company you've given up the CEO position to Michael Evans you are still the face of Alibaba you're travelling the globe all the time preaching the Alibaba story you are the visionary you're the one who thinks about where Alibaba might be define your role today I have three things to do when I retire from CEO position I told my CEO and teams I promise when I much Chanin I'm learning I'm still learning to be a chairman I thought it would become a channel a company's big I should have more free time play golf on the beaches but I find oh my god I fly 870 hours in the air last year and this year 1000 hours in the year three things the first thing I would do is I will making sure our company them is amazing driven company mission mission and a vision driven company we have to making sure the whole company believing we are building an economy that can empower every small business young people women they can easily do business through internet this is number one so I'm talking to everybody everybody in the company I meet I remember there is a guy called Davey one that was early days when I came to America talk about internet about a Valley vision of Valley vision of the company this guy sitting there he was working for fortune 500 he said is a crazy guy how could you you know a company has no business model no money and talk about the mission vision of our Valley as a dhimmi come to my company so I came to China spent three days in my company when they he leave he said Jack I found your crazy now I found 100 crazy guys your company they all talked and seemed like a you a company if you have a one on your crazy guys we do not think we are crazy we think the outside world are crazy yeah so this is this is very very important and also I think the first for the first three years of Alibaba we had a no revenue no business model and I told the team forget about the money revenue today if you want the a long term company the only thing to think about is customers the best revenue for our first three one or two years the best revenue is what is the email of thanks that's the best revenue if the customer send your emails say you are great I was so happy early days when I went to a small restaurant people will pay my bill with a small notice a Jack thank you very much I know you don't know do not to make money but we made a lot of money through your website yeah I like that even now today I had a lot of customers they they pay me something you know it's not a bribe or but just there's a boy is in the hotel it opened all for me say Jack thank you so much my wife makes more money than me all your on your site so this is the best and I want to keep this culture in a company keep on going so second things culture the people and the third is build up a healthy environment for Alibaba so Jack Ma doesn't worry about a damn thing oh I have a lot of things to worry about so what do you worry about I worry about the company we have a big vision but we may disappear in 3 4 years because you're disrupted by something you can't imagine today we do because they're the world the change is so fast I worry a lot you know the artificial intelligence may take a lot of jobs away and I worry about if we do not move fast enough lot of if we do not innovative if not if we do not spend enough time and giving simple easy products application technology for small business most of some other business cannot survive in this 10 years if the small business cannot survive we cannot survive and so what a small business need to survive today I would say next 10 20 years the small business no matter where you are if you do not try to globalize your business through internet you may not have a business opportunity it's not like good oh you know I I can I do local local business in the future is going to be more and more competitive think about how can you sell products across the board your products your chocolate people your village already know about the tongue your vision but the people in China they never know they love these things so think about how can you sell your products across the board this is I think can face yeah I mean you have you get a speech in which you talked about the warning and warning for decades of pain unless you recognize the coming advent of artificial intelligence robots yeah the whole range of things that could challenge yeah how you had been doing business in the past yeah you also have mentioned retirement yep Jack Ma at what at 50 something yep thinking about retirement yeah I'm preparing cuz I tell you that you've been preparing since you were 40 yeah think about retirement I leaving University I was served two years old and my president of my University said Jack one day you want to come back any time you're welcome I said president I would not come back in ten years so I thought when I'm a 40 I can go back to teach but when I'm 40 oh my god life was so tough so tough my company almost in big trouble so I say I should I'll leave and then I say when I'm 45 I should retire when I'm 45 it cannot stop it and then I start to prepare say people say Jack you are the next Bill Gates I said I cannot compete with Camille gates but I can compete with the Bill Gates who can retire earlier and I can compete with the game who can empower the most small business so your 2012 I retire from the CEO and I have my own goal that I will retire from Jemma someday and I'ma be preparing that sings years to about 12 the thing is I don't want to die in my office I want to die on the beaches Apple hammer how much time use wait no wait how much time you spent on the beaches now I don't have time spent on the baby that's why I always dream one day how are the beaches because remember when we were young nobody give us a chance now we're big we should give young people chance young people do much better job than we do this is what I think and I think the world can be great chemist prosperous without you when you die people cry for three days or maybe less than three days they forget you so you'd have a good system for your tea no it's dry cleaning chance for them it's it strikes me in tonight and since I've known you that part of you is always a teacher I mean you're teaching tonight you're telling about my experiences and what you can learn from the journey I have taken you know the idea of sharing experiences is part of teaching for you yes I am I was trying to be a teacher and I benefit because I do not know anything about technology computing I still puzzle about what is soft house optical work and I do not know about can you know accounting marketing I know very little about that but the thing I learned from a being teacher that you a teacher always want his students to be more successful and better than you are so this is I learned to be a good CEO when I hide people I always want to hide those people who are smarter than I am and I today I give a lot of advice to my colleagues where they hide people there's one judge look at the young man if you think he will be a boss he would be my boss in five years hi him do not a thing do not find people who will follow you all the time so I pick you as a teacher you want to use this student become a banker that's the scientists they some there you don't want this this doing a bankrupt that is in jail you know so this is the way that I benefit and then I will become a CEO I call myself chief Education Officer and I love to talk a lot to share because when I as a teacher you may not know a lot of things the only things you learn are you sure people may not like the way I talk and I'm not my job is not to make people happy my job is to make people think this is the way we did if it is helpful for you take it if it's not a happy for you just to forget it well this is I love to be with this EP the entrepreneurs because you guys reminds me the eighteen past eighteen tops the years that we've got and I believe one thing I to give my advice to all of you at the enterpreneur today it's very difficult and tomorrow is even more difficult but the day of tomorrow is very beautiful most people die too more evening you have to work hard you have to learn you have to rely on your team and that's my business I like to be a teacher I was going to ask you about legacy but I'm not going to ask you about legacy because I think you just summed it up yourself it's a great pleasure to be here with you jack mom thank you thank you [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Alibaba Group

Views: 604,200

Keywords: alibaba, jack ma, charlie rose, gateway '17, china, retail, e-commerce

Id: ohfA8Hcwvic

Length: 38min 51sec (2331 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 20 2017