Jack Ma: I've Had Lots Of Failures And Rejections | Davos 2015

welcome jack mom we we've all become very cognizant of Jack and his story and when Alibaba went public with the largest IPO in history we knew a lot more about him so I want to talk about his personal story I want to talk about how many times he tried and failed and what kept him going I want to talk about where he is today and how he got here and where he is going and how he expects to get there and if he gets there what will it all mean for him and for the people that he wants to inspire so I began with this question though jack why are you back at Davos it's a it's a long break for seven years I think my last year type trip here was year 2008 but I was coming for a year 2001 for the young global leader for tomorrow and I think remembered I never heard about the Davos when I came but when I came I and the Switzerland so many young people demonstrated was such a horrible scene that I've had and asked them who wanted to do it they say anti-globalization and I say why globalization is a great thing why people and you know don't like it and then we come all the way for two hours here there's a machine gun there's a people checking us a oh god is that is that a fallen law is a prison we're gonna go with that but when I joined the fallen at the young global leader I was thrilled by so many ideas and for the first two three four years I learned what what does what does the globalization mean what is the cop or the citizenship me what about social responsibility me have all these new ideas and you see so many great leaders talking about leadership and I benefit a lot and a year too one and eight and nine when the financial crisis came I think it's better go back to work because we can never wing the world by talking so go back spend seven years now I come back I think it's time to do something return because I learned so much let's talk about years ago so why I should not talking to the young global leader of today shelling with them how we gone through that was the thing let's start with where you are today just how big is all about how many people come every day how many people come in a week how fast is it growing yeah we have over a hundred million buyers visiting our site shopping our site arm every day and we create a hundred million and every day we created 14 million jobs for China directly and indirectly and we grow from 18 people to 30,000 people meeting people in might apartment to now we have a four bit campers compared to 15 years ago we were big but compared to 15 years later with do a baby a big will you be 15 years from now I think 15 years ago I told my team that 15 years in the past 15 years we grow from nothing to this size and 15 years later I want people see know about Alibaba know tap out because it's already everywhere I want 15 years ago when we talked about what is ecommerce why small business can using this ecommerce those internet can do business across the nation and I hope 15 years later people forget about e-commerce because they think it's like electricity nobody think is a high tech today now this is something that I don't want 15 years later we still walk on the street talking about why and how ecommerce can help talk about the IPO we did it exceed your expectations that's a pretty small IPO 250 yes yeah two largest not to be Oh in the history okay we raised we we raised number two with a Chinese bank thank you I I remember year 2001 we went to raise some five minutes remain a venture capitalist daughters in the USA and got rejected and I say we come back raising some a little bit more but I I think it you know what we think more about is for 225 billion dollars how we can spend the money efficiently because this is not the money this is the trust from the world the trust from those people they want to do better jobs to help more people they won't have a good return so I think gives me more pressure because when our our market cap is a bigger than Ibn or certain day we're bigger than warm up we're one of the top ten 15 largest er market cap company in the world I told my team of myself is that true we're not that good because years ago people say up up tomorrow is terrible does not a make money have those and that all the big bad things because Emma's is battery based battery Google is better and there's no such model like Alibaba in the USA so I told myself in people we were better than people thought but today when we got that big size I said no we are not that good as people thought we're just a company 15 years old average age is 27 28 years old young people we're doing something that human being have never tried so what I want to talk about the future let me take you back to when you were born in hang zoo where the headquarters still are yeah and your campuses they don't have a loo dum-dum move your loot you have photos they're here yeah you're fond of their loot there you grew up in the 60s 64 that were born in 64 that was the time of the Cultural Revolution yeah it was the end of the Cultural Revolution it was well my grandfather was a tiny landlord was considered after liberation was considered to be a bad guy so our son I I know how tough he was when I was kid you tried to get into three colleges each time they rejected you know I tried there is a examination that young people if you want to go University of the taste take the examinations so I failed of three times by a lot of fail I fail for funny things that I failed a key primary school tests for two times and I failed like three times for the middle school middle schools and you were never believed in ching Hanzo my city there's only one middle school that lasts only one year it was changed from primary school middle school because our graduates of our our Alice school no universe you know middle school except us because we were too bad I will become a pillar what effect did it have though being rejected well I think we have to get used to it we're not that good even today we still have a lot of people reject us I think when I in the graduate from universities and before I you know for three years I tried fill in the universities so I applied jobs for 30 times got reject it I went for a please listen no you're not good I went to either even the KFC when KFC come to China come to I say usually 24 people went for the job 23 people accepted I was the only guy and we went for please five people all of them accepted I was the only guy did I receive receive it so to me being turned down rejected oh by the way I told you that I would apply for Harvard for 10 times rejected I know if you reduce our sorry now 10 times you wrote them and said I'd like to come to Harvard yeah and then I told my so somebody I should go teach there buddy I think that can be arranged Richard Nixon came to Hong Zhu yeah and after that tourists flooded the place yeah and that's how you learn English yeah I really like the I don't know why at 12 13 years old that time I saw they fell love into the language the English and there's no place you can you can learn English at that time there's no books English books so I went to the council hotel now called a hundred shangri-la hotel because that was the hotel can receive the foreign visitors so every morning for nine years I showed them around as a free guide and they taught me English and I think that changed to me today on 100% made in China I've never got a one day training outside China and people when people talk to me say Jack how can you speak English like that why sometimes you you talk like an American Western guys I think that was the nine years these Western for tourists opened my mind because everything they told me are so different from the things I learned from the screws and from my parents so now I have a habit whatever I see whatever read I use my mind think about for two names that have mahjong became Jack Ma actually Jack the name was given by a lady in tennis she's a tourist as she came here and she said came to Hangzhou we had a we become a pen friends marring is so difficult to pronounce so she said do you you have an English name as I don't because okay you give me English name she said okay she said my father called Jack my husband called Jack what do you think about Jack I said good something you see that for that menus first visit to America 1995 1995 yeah I come here for a project helping the local government to building up highway and you tried the Internet I try to internet in Seattle and in that building called the USA bank I don't know whether US banks do there or not but it's a building and this my friend opened a small office which is so like only 10 percent bigger than this room under a lot of much computers in there and he said a jack you this is internet it was I asked what is internet he said and I'll search whatever you want at that time to use mosaic very slow right and I say I don't use it I don't want to type because intent computer is so expensive in China if I destroy it I cannot pay you said just to search it so I searched the first word of beer I don't know why because easy to spell a baby and I see beers from Germany beers from USA beers from Japan but there's no beer from China and I say okay type the second words China no data nothing nothing and I say 95 not do not have no data about China so I talked to my friend why not I make some something about China so we made a small very ugly looking page called China it's about it's something like I did a translation gauges and we listed on there it was so shocking we launched at 9:40 in the morning 12:30 I got a phone call for my friend he said Jack you know you got a five emails so what is email and they say these are the things say people so except for where are you this is the first time I see a Chinese website on that how can we kind of win can we do something together so I think this is something interesting so we should do it why did you call it a la Baba Alibaba well when I started I think Internet is global we should have a global name and a name that interesting like at that time the best the name is Yahoo right I think I can so I've been thinking for many days suddenly Alibaba is a good name so I I was happened to being sent San Francisco that day never did have a lunch and the waitress can I ask her do you know about Alibaba she say yes I do what is Alibaba she said Open Sesame good so I went on the street ask about 10 20 people they all know about Alibaba 40 thieves and Open Sesame and I think this is a good name and start with a whatever you talk about all the bubbles on the top you have said before that in creating our Ababa you had to create trust yep because people in China were used to face to face how did you create trust I think because we started out a bit doing business into internet I don't know you you don't know me so how can you do things online unless you have trust so for e-commerce the most important of thing was trust I think when I wear first went to USA for raising money talk to the venture capitalist a lot of people say oh Jack no no no no no China doing business but wine she how came to a business on internet and I know that without the trust the system the credit system it's impossible to do business so we with ever in the past or for 14 years everything we do is trying to build up the trust the system the record system well Charlie you know I I'm so proud of today when I I talked to young padang China and in the world people don't trust each other the government and people and the media and everybody god this guy is cheating but because of e-commerce we finish 60 million transactions every day people don't know each other I don't know you I send products to you you don't know me you wire the money to me and I don't know you I give a personal package I don't know him he took something too so cross the ocean cross river understand this is the trust we have sick at least the 60 minute trust happening every day but you created by creating an escrow account in the beginning yep you know and so you keep the money until they got the product yeah and then you release the money that's true I mean the EBSCO service is about a leap a and when I when I when I have you know this idea with the love Davos because it was a big decision because for thirst of three years Alibaba is just like a market places for for information once you have what I have we talked a long time but don't do any business because there is no payment I talked to the banks no banks want to do it banks are now this thing never works so I don't know what to do because if I start to launch a payment system it's against the financial legal laws because you have to have a license but if I don't do it emo ecommerce will go nowhere so then I went to Davos I listened to a leadership a discussion leadership is about responsibility and after I listened to that panel I give a call to my friends my colleagues in the my apartment say do it now immediately if something wrong the govern not happy by that if one body has to go to the prison Jack might go to the prison because it is so important for China for the world to build of the trusted system and if you did not do it I sent and do not do it properly stealing money money was no transfer code I send you to the prison yeah so how is the thinker and people people don't like it so many people I talked to at that time for Olli pay they say this is the stupidest idea you have ever got but I say I don't wear the stupid club as long as people use it now we have 800 million people using this a leap a stupid of things you deliver is better Olli pays a privately-held thing is not part of Alibaba no it's a pen I talk about money for a second yeah you have never gotten money from the Chinese government no no no I I want at the beginning a late I don't want it because I think if the company always think about it picking money from all of the government of pockets that companies is rubbish think about how can you make money from the customers and market and then help customers succeed that's our philosophy from Chinese banks no no at that time I want and now they want to give me I don't want it yeah your relationship with the government mm-hmm yeah what's your relationship I mean if they didn't here's what some say that you have existed in an environment that's not they have restricted competition for you and that's a pretty good thing to do for a private company yeah I think the relationship with the government to for us is very interesting for the first two five years because I've been working as a part-time job for a government organizational Ministry of Foreign Trade 1997 for 14 months and I learned that you should never rely government organization to do e-commerce and I start a business I told my people and team in love with the government but don't marry them respect them and a lot of people say well you know government officers talking to about Internet the censorship and there's that and they worry about I think it's the opportunity it's a responsibility talking to them tell them how Internet can help so you tell them we create jobs oh yeah I been I think a lot of people debate and fight against them and in the first 12 years anybody come to my office I sit down talking to them how we can help economy how we can create jobs why China we improve by the Internet I think because internet that time is new to any government and if you convince somebody and you have the chance so today I'm very talkative that probably this is why I talk to so many people so I mean the government comes to you and ask you to do something for them mmm-hmm normally when government comes a jack came to this project as you know I can't you guys you know okay I can introduce some friends who are interested in doing that for you but if you if they continue to want me to do it I say okay I do it but I don't want I don't charge I hope next time don't come to me again but recently we helped some government organize you do it for example the every Spring Festival the train station the train tic is so difficult hundreds and thousands of farmers in work in the cities in the spring festival they go to the hometown but when they order tickets on the on the DDT other way the whole system crashed for five years so I told my young people go support them don't charge anything because I don't want to see millions of farmers go back to city and they cannot back the tickets so it's it's something that it's not for money it's something I it's not for the government it's for the millions of millions people they can buy tickets in a snowy night and then you have to wait they just buy use mobile phone online we got ticket one-way stop along the route to where you are in that big IPO was Yahoo Jerry Yang gave you a invested billion dollars yeah a billion dollars now it turned out to be a pretty good investment for Yahoo yeah the one time after another are you raised this money on your own outside of China with investors mmm-hmm yeah I'm very thankful for all the investors because some 1999 year 2000 and evening at the Yahoo time a lot of people say this jack is crazy he's doing something that we don't understand a lot of venture capitals give you money because there is such a American model already there but they say Alibaba we don't see this kind of motto right name Jack's crazy yeah this is crazy guy I mean I remember my first time in Time magazine they call me crazy jack and I think Chris is good we are crazy but we're not stupid we know what we are doing but if everybody agree with me if everybody believed my our idea is good we have no chance so that's the money we raised we're very thankful so when the our investors makes a lot of money I feel proud in honor as you know in the United States issues have risen about privacy yeah Google and Apple and questions of whether the government should have access to files how do you handle that if the Chinese government says you know a lot about people mm-hmm you have transactional relationships with lots of people mm-hmm and they say we want to see your files well so far I don't have this kind of province of our Chinese government and I told them any government if you come here for the national security anti-terrorist well anywhere anti-terrorist will work together there's a criminal we work the rest of that no I said we are business the data is so precious because we do know how because if we give to anybody it's going to be a disaster and also the privacy issues I think just like hundreds of years ago people say I would rather put the money under my pillow rather than putting the banks but today banks they're special they know how to protect money much better than you do privacy issues all these kind of securities today we may not have the solutions we don't have the answer but I believe our young people have the solutions in next 10 20 years there will be breakthrough on that and I am fully confidence on that your life is a testament to the idea that nothing is impossible that if somebody says no you say it's just the beginning where does that come from well I at the beginning I never thought I was young I said everything's possible now I know not everything is possible where you have something you have to think about you have to consider about the others you have to consider about the customer society your employees your shareholders so society there are so many things that I think if you continue to work hard there's there's possibility and I just a few that I'm enthusiastic about what we are doing at the beginning for the first five years I just want to survive and five years later I think that's 2000 from ninety point yeah but later I think wow so many people's life changed I was so excited you know for the first of three years we made a zero revenue zero revenue but we we are so excited ass beast continued to work you know what happened I remember many times when I go to restaurant have a dinner somebody came when I was to try to pay the bill the owner of the restaurant came to say sir your bill is a paid by someone and the small note say hey mister Mar I'm your customer of Alibaba Group are above a platform I've made a lot of money and I know you don't make any money I pay the bill for you and I remember one thing one day that I was sitting somewhere in the coffee somebody's sending me a cigar I don't smoke cigar but there's a note thank you very much I'm your customer and I remember the tabla days I would the shangri-la Hotel in Beijing when I get on the taxi the male who opened the door for me take the boy out at the gate he said Jack thank you very much I know one of you serves here my girlfriend makes more money than I do on your site and this is something that you know that it's not amazing if you don't do it nothing is possible if you try to do it at least you have the hope the revenue comes from advertising and a smaller amount from transactional - yes most of it from advertising tiny tiny from advertising tiny from advertising tiny from transactions because we need big mess when we now we have more than 10 million small business power sellers selling our site to everywhere so the big trends the transactions we have a second after Walmart so time that gap the wall yeah tiny of the transact of the money already big as big as big so you know we second after warmer I remember one of the senior management of warmer guys came to town so five years ago he said Jack you know you had a great job in bababa so we I said maybe in 10 years we'll be bigger than warmer you say young man you have a good hope those who ever make a map that I think in 10 years will be big the Walmart on the cells because if you want have 10,000 to new customers you have to build a new warehouse and this that for me to service what's your market cap versus walls from Walmart today all right I don't know about abhi yeah some it's close I think so maybe we should check later all right now yeah so where are you going what does Jack want I think because the name for Alibaba we are Internet company happen to be in China we have the same spirit and an entrepreneur sprit like every great entrepreneurs in the world and I remember the day when I study but we want have amazing helping small business doing easier so next up is today so many millions of small business using our platform to sell things and over 300 minute consumers buy things from our site cheapest efficient so what I'm thinking about how we can make Alibaba a platform for global small business my vision is that how if we can help but Norway small business can sell things to Argentina and agitator consumers can buy things online from from Switzerland and we can build up which I code I don't know maybe the right not right word copy WTO the WTO is a great pasta century but W have so many big companies to sell things across the nation today Internet can help small business sell things cross the oceans crossing the nations and I hope that we can serve 2 billion consumers 2 billion contributing consumers we can help 10 million small business outside China helped outside outside China because I'm so because we help the American farmers in Washington State almost 300 tons of cherries to China last year cherries when they when we before we sell the ambassador of us it came to me CJ can you help us selling cherries and Jesse what chair isn't the fruits is why not I said why not let's check so that when we order when we start to sell cherries the cherries do on the trees so we start a pre-order 80,000 families all the cherries online so we pick up the cherries and shipping to China within 48 hours with sell the church the consumers are so happy and but we got a lot of letters complain after three days they say why only a hundred tents why we should under get more so we sell you know last two months ago we helped the Costco we sell 300 tons of nuts to China so I'm thinking about if we can sell oh no we're also selling Alaska seafood to China so if we can sell seafood we could if we can seal the cherries why we can help American and European small business selling things to China consumers China Neath that so this is what I want do is that ten to billion consumers China Asia developing nations how we can let them buy things for globally Alibaba Road with the millions of people that went from poverty to the middle class in China I mean you were right they're growing as they grew and increased when you look at the international markets you're doing well in Russia yeah how well we do pretty good on Russia and we to breed to also pretty good at Brazil Russia I think and now we I don't know where the it's not the number one with the table a two or number three largest er ecommerce ecommerce I remember last year we had a campaign the campaign is that a lot of the Russian people girls and boys want to buy things from China you know how many days a Russian girl put it place in order and receive the products from China two years ago for Mouse even that people are so happy about outing and lastly the campaign within one week we crash the whole largest system of Russia all right you're also seen in Hollywood yeah what are you doing in Hollywood well I like the big Hollywood innovation at the digital I learned so much about the Hollywood movies especially the forest gun love forests got love for its gun why do you like him simple never give up and people people thinking he's done but he knows what he's doing and I was very depressed the day a year 2002 or three in the States when I owned oh no no no earlier than that I was very depressed when I I could not define out a way for the internet and then I watched the movie my friend's home forced a gun when I see him as a this is the guy we shall learn from believe what you're doing love it whether people like it don't like it be simple and like the word life is like a box of chocolate you never know what you can get right I never know I would be here talking to you and talking to Charlie Rose I never know but today I made it I told my people in my apartment 18 15 years ago guys we have to work hard not for ourself if we can be successful eighty percent of the young people in China can be successful we don't have a rich father powerful uncle we don't have a one daughter from bank when Sam from government just work as a team so what do you worry about I worry about it today young people a lot of young people lose hope lose vision instead of complaint because we also have the same periods when I got it's not a good feeling being rejected by so many people we also depressed though at least later we find that the world has a lot of opportunity how you see the world how you catch the opportunity so and the Hollywood give me a lot of inspiration yeah but basically out there for business you're out there because you want to make movies and sell them I want to make the movie for business-wise we are ecommerce company we we have a lot of products that need logistic but movie TV these are things you don't need logistic system and movie probably is the best product that can help Chinese young people to understand because one thing I told the Chinese people of my friends in American movie all the heroes at the beginning they look like a bad guy about terrible things coming they become hero and finally they all survived China if you have a move hero all the hero died so dad people become the hero so nobody wanna be the hero so you want to change the Chinese definition of hero yeah I want to say hero are you today we have so many heroes live in this world are you still writing this kung-fu novel very just reading them I read them and I start to write something I pick to find a kung-fu it's something you you start to think about something that you cannot do but if you have some luck if you continue to practice if you got a good master if a good team your expert so at least it make me when I'm busy when I'm tired of frustrate I read a comfort box and you also have a travel with a tight I am I saying that right a trainer trainer Chi Chi Chi Chi Chi Chi Chi yeah what does that do for you other than keep you in good I will tie Chi Chi Chi is a philosophy about it in any young Tai Chi is about how you balance how you work like a competition people say when I compete with eBay see you hate even no no no I don't hit eBay it's a great company you know they come I go you know Tai Chi's like you fight here I go over there you put on the top I go to down right off my balance right you are happy I'm a small you know what I'm small I can jump your have you cannot Jack their tag is better philosophy I use in Taiji philosophy in the in the business calm down there's always way out and keep yourself balanced and meanwhile don't try to keep this business is is a company competition is a fun business like a battlefield you you die or I wing business even if you die I mean either win right so it's about it's better fun so Taiji gives me a lot of inspirations you but you want your life and you want this company Alibaba to change the world and your change in the world is in fact you provide a forum for buying and you enable people to earn a living but also you believe that Alibaba ought to change the lives of women so what are you doing at first I think many years ago I want to change the world now I think if you want to change the world we change our self change our self is more important and easier then change the world and second is that I want to improve the world because it changed the world maybe Obama's job yes sir my job is to making sure that my team are happy because my team are happy they can make my custom happy if my custom their own small business when they are happy we are happy about women one of the secret sauce for Alibaba success is that we have a lot of women what percentage of women had well before I think two months before two or three months before we I peel there is America there's American journalist control company she asked me a question Chekov see zoom and women your company I see what's wrong we have a leader we find that you know with we have 30 or we have 47 percent of the employees of our company and women many 40 47 percent of our company women and we actually had a 51 because we acquire some company these days they have a Moorman so balanced that but these are women in top level positions 33% of the cinema of the management of women and 24% of the senior manager a top level women we have a woman CEO CFO CPA cheap people officer and we have everywhere and I think so comfortable to working with them because women in this world if you want the wing in 21st century you have to making sure that making other people powerful empower others making sure the other people better things you are then you will be successful so I find the women they think about the others more than they think about themselves women think about the jackets husband parents much more than the man and they user-friendliness a couple of things I want to talk about before we go because we have less than a couple minutes our China today are you worried the economy slowed down oh I don't worry about I think China is doing it's slowing dot is much better than keep on 9% China today is the second the largest economy in the world it's impossible to keep 9% of the growth if China still keeps a 9% of the growth of the economy there must be something wrong you will never see the blue sky you will never see the quality China should pay attention to the quality of the economy China should not so if we have a lot of inference you know like the heart of movies things and we have a response and of these things in the car in the eva gdp will be much better so i think just like a human bro you can never this body cannot a bro bro bro bro certain time the slow of grow of a body was slow but you should grow your mind grew your culture grew your valley grew your visiting I think China is moving to that Gretchen and you saw Modi in India honey did you see Modi in India not yet I'm looking forward to though you'll go to India finally there's this you're one of the world's richest people companies one of the world's richest companies what do you want beyond Alibaba well how about riches to people I was I told mice I was really not happy in the past free Mouse when people say Jack my is the richest to people of China global celebrity they said no I'm not I'm not thinking when I start a business if you are I never thought as how many yeah maybe I am NOT but I think what I 15 years ago my apartment might my wife or was at that time one of the 18 founders I asked her do you want your husband to be a rich person I never said rich person in China rich person Han Solo oh you want to be your husband to be respected a person she said of course respected because she'd never believed and I don't believe we'll get rich people which is the water survive I believe we have 1 million dollars that's your money we have 20 million dollars you start a problem you what about information where we should stock to buy and this that's a headache um when you have 1 billion dollars that's not your money that's the trust Society give on you they believe you can manage the money use the money better than the government the others so I think today I have the resources do more things with the money we have with the influence we have we should spend more time on the young people and I would say someday I'll go back to teach go back to school spend time with the young people and telling sharing with them what I doubt so the money is not mine I just are happily and having this resources then I want to do better job just tell them your story yeah tell them the story and tell them that if Jack I don't think in this world a lot of people be rejecting more than 30 times if we you know the only thing we never give up the only thing like we like a forest to gum will keep on fight we keep on change ours self we don't complete whether you were successful not successful I find a one people when they finish the job if they make the mistake if you the film if they always complained the others this guy will never come back if the guy only check himself yeah something wrong with me here something want me there there this guy has it hope jack on behalf of writing this audience and a television audience around the world thank you for taking your time to be with us thank you thank you so much

Channel: World Economic Forum

Views: 2,309,084

Keywords: world economic forum, WEF, Davos, Davos2015

Id: 1O3ghiyirvU

Length: 44min 32sec (2672 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 03 2015