Jack Ma Announces $10M African 'Netpreneur' Prize

thank you thank you so much I am very inspired and moved and touched when I was sitting there listen to all the great speeches thank you my friends thank you my colleagues I mean colleagues entrepreneurs we're lucky that this life we can be together on the way to do something ourselves to do something we believe to do something that we dreamed of last year was my first trip to Africa before I came to Africa I worried a lot like anybody else this and that this is no good that is no good this is not safe everything but I said no matter whatever you're worried you have to step on Africa and feel it and touch it yourself so I came I thought it's too late I why did I came ten years ago Africa is a continent full of opportunities and I was inspired and I said from now on every year I would come to Africa visit the three countries so this is my second trip to Africa and I hope in next 10 15 years I can finish visiting 54 countries in Africa every country and I came with a lot of friends business leaders in China and they said what we can do it so don't do anything come here fuel it only when you feel it you will love it when I leave left Africa last year I feel uh something something should be done a lot of things can be done and I ask myself one thing that the day when I start a li ba ba and I told my team and there is a sentence we remember if not now when if not a mate who write so we said let's come to Africa do something and well this is this is why we came and people say well Africa there's so many problems tell me in the world there is a place there's no problems there's no place in the world there's no province right and people's there yeah Africa is a poor there's no wealth but I feel this is there's of the best wealth of human beings here you have a beautiful air blue sky and the nature and wide animals these are the richest of sense that the whole world of the mind and especially China we under my blue sky you know that I wish I could have stay here for two days and you know for a whole Mouse here and visited an SOP Rand Paul's wanna and the south of burg this time and we already start to plan next year which at what are the countries we want to visit and people say well Africa is too old but I think this can this continent it's such a young full of young people everywhere right and when you listen to a listen to the entrepreneurs the II and II founders were named being Hangzhou I said these people the entrepreneurs in the in Africa they are the soup first class in the world I'm not I'm not tell I'm sitting from the heart the way they say the dream do believe the action and the passion this this is amazing I think this land is full of chance full of opportunities full of dreams and I think there's the other things that you see this land also has a lot of responsibilities I was in Cape Town yesterday we're giving 50 our world's to the Rangers those people protect animals right we we promised we were giving 50 renders a world's every year and these people are the Java craters they are the real heroes I said a hundred two hundred years ago people named those people killing animals are the heroes now we should hero those people who protect animals [Applause] and I always believe when everything's ready it's too late and does not entrepreneurs I do the things before everything's ready right there will be no Alibaba if everything is ready why Jackman you know we've this guy failed again again for so many times failed examination for university for three times no money and my my father my mother those are very poor people in the group in the cities so there's no chance for us Africa the same today's Africa is much better than ninety years ago when we started Alibaba people was such a terrible speed at that time they were using internet you know when I started my business 1994 for the Internet I invite a lot of people say jack is telling a lie there is no such thing called internet I went to register my company and in the company registered in office if people say what kind of a company you want to do I said Hanzo internet consulting company is internet there is no such a word in a dictionary they cannot register the company and China was not connect to the internet the day when I registered my company three months later China was connected the Internet so in order to prove that I was not a liar I invited TV people came to my room we waited of three hours and a half to download the first front page and that was true right um and this is say and at that time nobody believed internet don't buddy believed ecommerce nobody believed China would have e-commerce no logistic no credit cards the same passion people crushed asking you now how can Africa Internet companies how can't do ecommerce you'd have a credit card you never logistic you don't have government support you don't have everything that's the opportunity as entrepreneur we never complain we make other people complain we make our competitors complain we never cry because if cry can solve the problems case of no problem we make competitors cry we make those people who do not believe our dreams cry in my apartment where we started eighteen founders and we aim high we have a dream we say we want to make become the top ten Internet companies or websites in the world guys at that time we are ranking several meaning name but we say well be double Ted or the top ten of the world we want to make this company last 102 years and we don't know where's our pay next month well when you are poor if you have a dreams you never feel poor you know what we are doing so after we never say we will be we will wing next year or we win tomorrow we say we were way in 10 20 years 19 years passed today we are the top 10 websites coming to the companies in the world and 19 years past 90 years best today we never think we never expect that Alibaba business I leave about companies just ecommerce we thought Ali m2 financing Alibaba ecommerce our market caps 500 billion US dollars so think about tell me 90 years ago anybody can see a company in China can be the top tech into the companies of the world o 10 years ago to the years ago anybody can believe a company in Asia could be the top 10 global tech companies in the world so people here believe in Africa in 10 20 years you will have at least a 10 20 f Alibaba companies because if you don't dream if you don't start to work this thing will never happen but if you studied do it you have a chance if not five hundred billion 50 billions okay [Applause] imagine Africa to 1.2 billion people most people young people right I say I heard from my friend dr. catuey you've got 13 million young people graduate from university looking for jobs these are the resources when Alibaba start to hire people we could not high people at tokus nobody want to join a company strange name Alibaba right and work in an apartment and nobody believed it covers our internet so we hire anybody who care walk we don't care right whether you have bastard degree a Bachelor degree as long as you believe us though they join us we start off with nothing it was true for the first of ten years was tough very difficult days because we cannot find the customers we cannot find a good engineers we cannot find any any sort of resources we don't we cannot to get money from the from the banks right so people say well you know in Africa we cannot get loans from them from the banks everywhere in the world banks do not give small business money right so we start to be very careful for every every cent we spend and the day the our first IPO years year 2007 when Alibaba I peeled in Hong Kong year 2007 we are a lot of millionaires in the company and I asked my friend my colleagues alike we have like a 300 people become millionaires and I asked them a now tell me you become millionaires because you are smarter than the others the people said no no no no we even cannot find the jobs because you are hardworking yes we were happy we find more people hard-working than us but they did not succeed one of why they're not smart all the smart people at that time they went to Microsoft and IBM and headhunting companies came to head and all the best guy from us and we are the people nobody kept their head we have no place to go we believe in ourself we believe our dream will work together so I say we are the people because nobody want us I am the person over 30 companies don't want me right so we are the people get used to be rejected we are the people get used to be say no from the other people why people should help you people help you that is unusual people do not help you that is very common you should were to end to be helped so in order to encourage my 817 founders and all the people who join us I said our competitor is very strong at that time our competitor was eBay not of the eBay guys from graduate from Harvard we are people graduate from the note I don't want even a mention but at the university names what about it but I say if we can wing if we can succeed 80% of the young people in China in the world can be successful because we believe we work a lot of heavy dreams but they don't work hard a lot of work hard but they don't have dreams entrepreneurs should have word + dreams and this way we can win so today Africa you don't have a bank counts a lot of people have done the background I have a logistic I don't have the prayer car system this is opportunity go build up this when other people can where is the opportunity opportunity always lies in the place where people complain when people complain you go suck solve the problem the big problem you solve the big company it is this is always about entrepreneurs so this is what I see Africa is a full of problems but if full of opportunities and also as an entrepreneur it's not easy very lonely the only people who support me your parents may not support you right your friends do not support to you and your wife do not support your husband tuna surprise you I get used to that you have to get used to be no supporting so when you're lonely use your left hand to warm your right hand right I always say someday I will be there someday we will be there and this is something that always in my heart I tell the team that as entrepreneur remember one mode that today is difficult tomorrow is much more difficult but the day of tomorrow is beautiful but most people die tomorrow evening right you have to work very hard you have to we have no choice because you're not working for yourself you're working for the dream you're working for the things you believe so a lot of people join me not because they have talents because we don't we there's no experts of future there's always X for yesterday in Africa don't listen to those experts telling you don't do this don't do that tell them Africa needs a future the future has no experts right we entrepreneurs someday we are the experts right so this is what I think and when you wear entrepreneur get used to failure today's the Alibaba you succeed well our company won't last 102 years 102 years because every target every goal we keep our team should be very accurate we were born in 1999 last the century we had a 1 year we want to spend 100 years and plus 1 year 1 or 2 prosperous entries so very accurate we never see we are successful because we are only 19 years old there's 83 years to go so we will never say we're successful we just survived 90 years we are lucky but in the past 90 years we have made thousands of mistakes as an entrepreneur don't learn from other people how they succeed learn from how their people fail because a lot of MBA schools that teach you successful successful case studies when you read too many successful you think you can be successful no there are a lot of things that you don't know because you know some Business School came to Alibaba right a case studies they say yeah this is Alibaba and you say no this is not Alibaba they wanted me to sign after one week study they say this is case study Alibaba I said no this is not me they say Jack you don't know you and I said all right I say and next two five years every year there is a case study in Ching hai University I was invited a sitting at the back listen to the MBA schools pockets learning about our case study and they always put a competitor competitor in Alibaba who has succeeded for five years all they always agree Alibaba would die the competitor will win but five years all the competitors died so how can you learn from the case study like that learn from the mistakes because the mistake most of the companies I I talk to entrepreneurs most of the mistakes they made are the same most of the success reasons you don't know their different reasons so when you learn from the mistakes not because you want to avoid mistakes because when you see the mistakes where you have this kind of problems you know how to face it an entrepreneur have a strong heart towards the difficulties mistakes the troubles the failures but should it be a warm and soft heart to your colleagues and to the customers and I think one of the things I want to share is the valleys the six values amount the two valleys very unique and Alibaba which I think the whole world should think about we put custom number one in pride number to share her number three most of companies in the Wall Street they put a shareholder number one I said each customer is the most important if you serve them well they pay the money and the second important is colleagues why the college get together because they want to serve the customers if they do not a cust serve the customers why we get it together right so if the customer happy in price happy the shareholders will be happy and the next of value I'll share with you is embrace the change in this change of the work keep the changing is the best way to keep step keep could be success there's no there's I remember year 2000 when I tried to raise my money I went a lot of venture capitalists they say Jack give me the business plan I said I don't have a business plan I'll write something look at the others they were such a big business plan yeah I spare the whole week right on one piece of paper they said this is the business plan a book the book is about how to be successful in you know doing their business in e-commerce internet channel I say how can they write a book China was not even connect to the internet we never change our dreams but we change our self we'll learn from the mistakes from the others and ourselves and change and become successful this is how we did so and also I encourage all the intrapreneurship in Africa do not think about your own country think about a whole Africa think about the whole world if you think about your own country there's no difference between thinking your own country in your village the internet connect everywhere and this continent is very simple people say very company I think it's a very simple if you have been to Europe you know how complicated it is they worry too much Ryan our security previously this and that before the business is done they start to put a lot of rules and laws here you have nothing to destroy right so this will the most difficult to thing is to convincing a successful people successful people is telling you don't do this don't do that you know we have experience of this and that we are the people we want to be successful we want to create the future we want to do something that we believed in so I think the very important for Africa is created jobs and the best way to create jobs is to encourage your small business the best way to create jobs is to trust the young people and I talked to the president yesterday evening we should every country in this this world this century should encourage give good conditions text conditions to the startups not the company's right it's and he I'm very happy to hear that he agreed because those big companies they don't need that we startup needed if you take tiny text from those tiny startups it just like a taking the meat of the mosquito legs you're killing the others you did not survive right there are this world there are so many great conditions for big companies it is time let's forget policies for startups for young companies and also I encourage it all the entrepreneurs if you want to start a business don't think you will be successful next month or next year think about at least five years because if something can be successful next month why you you have a rich father you don't have to be stirred up right and I by the way don't be discouraged because you have a poor diploma or you know graduate from a poor university or lower education don't worry about that if you graduate from MIT Harvard you would never be entrepreneur right they can only be the white-collar guys so as entrepreneur you should have the story the strategy for entrepreneurs strategy is time ten years you compete with the other people the vision the world will be there will be there what kind of customers they need how we can build it up if you'd prepare for five years in ten years if you have a good team and always do before the government do if you're waiting for government you have no chance right wave gun I'm gonna say there is an opportunity there go that direction because it would be too crowded in there right this is always so SM true premiere I always ask yourself three questions what do you have what do you want and what will give up what do you have will have nothing right the only things we have dreamed would believe we have a team and I believe we have the word time to work hard and what do you want and what do you want you have death what the custom want what's the problem of the society what the of your customers and what the team want think about what do you have we want and what we give up if you don't want to give up everything you will get nothing a lot of business people they never learned to focus if you start about land to be focused on one thing right because learn to be focused just like there are nine rabbits on the ground if you want to catch the rabbit don't change the rabbit change yourself if you want to catch this and get to it finally get nothing so for nine rabbits don't change the rapid change yourself to catch that rabbit and you've done it a lot of things we have to learn it's a great experience to be an entrepreneur life is so cool when you become entrepreneur in my life the day I never write a book for myself I think those people write books are getting too old my life just the beginning the day when I want rabbit I want to write a book Alibaba 1001 mistakes and I want to tell my kids how many tough days I have grown through how many many mistakes I've made and this is the best experience this is because it's easy to be good but it's tough to be bad so the other thing is I think Africa has two great opportunities lie before us first is digital Africa you don't have such a complicated IT infrastructure today it is very difficult to move in Europe and America because they have such a perfect IT infrastructure you know one of the reason why ecommerce in China grows so fast is China infrastructure off of retail is too bad suddenly ecommerce can we jump up Africa I think it's almost same like China 90 years ago opportunity and you don't have a payment i encouraging all the the government in africa to launch the payment for everyone have the chance to reach the money it is not that difficult the technology is there as and don't worry about you know there is a security this I tell you I'll repay Alibaba payment in the past of 15 years we've been going such a tremendous amount every day now we are fighting more than 500 million transactions we are bigger than visas a global mask of global we have a trillions of trillion more than ten trillion dollars transaction last year we don't have even one cent mistake any bank tell me that you don't have one cent a mistake in one year we don't for 15 years the technology is there the only things you want your people to be rich you want your piece small business to reach the money so please all the government policymakers encouraging the increase of financing and the technology is there Alibaba would do anything to share the technology and the second things are logistic all the African countries should be working together over 54 countries make a free trip make the logistics center logistic and create many civilian jobs for Africa if somebody have an idea can global by a global cell global deliver it would be such a great opportunity so and tourism there are a lot of opportunities here so let's make Africa a digital so encouraging every governor some of the countries are visit I'm feel sorry that the bandwidth was too bad very expensive I went one of the countries I don't want to name them name it's a beautiful place and there's no no Wi-Fi a tiny wife and they say well in order to give me a peaceful rest so we don't have Wi-Fi as at all because you don't have Wi-Fi so if we do not cover the Wi-Fi and mobile for Africa it's worse than 20 years ago we do not have electricity in Africa it is so important let the people reach the internet get the information get the buyers get the sellers get the partners get the ideas communicate so this is very very important and I encourage you and the next thing I want to say is entrepreneurs forms the governorship in encourage entrepreneurs make entrepreneurs of the hero of today we I hope that we will work to get with the e founders next a few years we will have more if entrepreneur forums in Africa the prize is to encourage entrepreneurship Renier that will drive Africa economy these people have dreams it's not the money it's not the technology to drive the economy it's the dreams that drive the economy it's the young people to drive the economy and it is the slow business that created jobs so I want to work with you together people say why you why you as why not me because I have failed so many times we don't have a resource we don't have money and I I know as an individual so difficult when people don't help you and we're as a small business so difficult to not help you but if you got a chance to survive it's so great so now I think everything I got is not because we hard work because of our team because the time it is time to giving this thing back to society if we have more Jack Ma if we have more alibaba's if we have more tension if we have more ali page or more facebook the world would be much more colorful colorful this is what we want to do because I'm ok I'm happy about my 9 $10 a month when I was a teacher I think I don't worry about my my life I don't worry about my kids life but the money if you put the bank's bank will waste all my money I would spend money so let's work it together let's make Africa a digital Africa making every young people have the opportunities the other chance for Africa is globalization I'm a strong believer of globalization nobody can stop globalization globalization has nothing wrong but global data need to improve globalization in the past of 30 years only focus on developer countries big companies we should have make globalization more inclusive to support the young people small business and women so these are the things the opportunities life for Africa and finally I think Africa you have a wonderful female entrepreneurs at the internet time if you do business cross the board if you do business online people never see show me your deep rumor sure whether your man or woman people don't care they care whether you serve people well so if you want to be a good company you should have at least 50% of the price of women if you will being an understanding companies of all women they're men let me tell you Alibaba we have 48 percent of the employees of the company of women 34 percent of senior management are women because women they're loyal their hard work like different man they care more themselves I'm sorry right women they they care for the husband and they care about the kids and mother and also work this these are the people we need in the century and I think if African women's have a huge potential but passionate if you love and they they serve people well so let's do this all right so this is how I want to share with you and for for this Netra premiere price it's just a beginning it's the test the money ten million dollars that's not a big but it is it is something we want I mean it's not a bit compared to the other people the government spend the money or people on the other areas entrepreneurs do we need the money yes we need the money but if they ain't report if some people came to me for many years in the past year people came to mr. Jack if I have money I'm going to do this and then I say oh please go if the money can solve problems the bank's can't do anything entrepreneurs they always put their dream their team customer and then money money is there they're full of money the only things whether you're continue to dream continue to make efforts continue to work hard continue to make people empower people empower the others so I would be very happy to join together with the Eve owners on on entrepreneurs let's encourage the entrepreneurs in Africa support them and respect them and we want to make them the heroes because when we have more great entrepreneurs in Africa this land is going to prosperous and this event is going to be a real mysterious land it's a land that everybody come so thank you so much and I hope I hope Alibaba can do you say what's the return of Alibaba the Alibaba return is that we hope 10 20 years later when Africa's good we can get a tiny what been tiny today Alibaba where we started we've been free for nine years why we can be free because we work very hard to make the technology good we work hard to make our customers easy and simple cheaper but we only get less than 1.2 or 2.3 percent of the tiny because we have a lot of customers one point is great enough for us so alibaba's Rita is entrepreneurs happy if you are happy there you will be successful if you're successful I don't think you mind bout 0 1 point % thank you so much [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Alibaba Group

Views: 213,936

Rating: 4.9015889 out of 5

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Id: -2922rYZSMg

Length: 35min 52sec (2152 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 08 2018