National Post (National Edition)
Alibaba’s genie
JACK MA’S SALES PITCH TO CANADIAN BUSINESSES STARTS WITH HIS LIFE STORY.
Jack Ma’s official title at the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is executive chairman, but his real job is selling his personal story.
As 3,600 people waited for him to appear at Alibaba’s massive Gateway ’17 event in Toronto Monday, organizers warmed up the crowd with a DJ and flashing lights. They screened not one, but two short documentaries telling the story of Ma’s life. And when Ma took the stage, the crowd went wild, sending him off with a standing ovation.
Ma says he spent 867 hours on airplanes last year, speaking at events around the world and meeting with global leaders. But the real targets of his message are ordinary small business owners — people he wants to convince can be wildly successful like him, if only they would sell their products to China through Alibaba.
In an interview following his talk at Gateway ’17, Ma elaborated on why he has his sights set on Canadian small business owners in particular. He said telling stories about finding success through Alibaba is key to helping them — and his own company — prosper.
“Those companies that already succeed, invite them to share and ask more people to learn from them. The mistakes these companies make, they can also share,” Ma said.
“Most businesses in Canada, they only sell locally or in North America. It’s not big enough. If they also sell to Asia and China, it’s another world.”
Ma, as he loves to tell people, came from humble beginnings. A video screened at Gateway ‘17 enumerated a lengthy list of his early failures — he says he was rejected from Harvard 10 times and from more than 30 jobs after graduating from university in China, including a position at KFC.
In 1995, Ma learned about the internet and did a web search for the word “beer.” After realizing there was very little information about China on the internet, he set about rectifying that, eventually founding Alibaba in 1999 with a small team working out of his apartment.
Today, Alibaba is a juggernaut of global commerce. Alibaba merchants sold US$550-billion worth of goods in the 2016 fiscal year and saw operating profit double year over year to US$2.88 billion in the second quarter of 2017.
Some have questioned whether those numbers are too good to be true. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission opened an investigation into Alibaba’s accounting methods last year, which is ongoing.
Ma said he looks forward to proving the doubters wrong. “Nobody would believe you can sell US$18 billion within one day,” Ma said, referring to Alibaba’s eye-popping sales figures on Singles Day, the Chinese equivalent of Black Friday.
“They say, ‘It’s crazy. How can you be bigger than Cyber Monday?’ But it is bigger.”
One person who’s not a doubter is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who delivered a keynote address and participated in a fireside chat with Ma. Ma said Trudeau was the one who convinced him to hold one of two North American Gateway events in Canada, with the other one taking place in Detroit in June.
Ma spoke effusively about his relationship with Trudeau. “When we talk, we talk like one person,” he said. “He’s passionate. He has an entrepreneur’s spirit inside. That is why we share a lot of things together.”
Ma said he’s hoping the 1.5 million members of the Chinese community in Canada will act as ambassadors for Canadian products on Alibaba. Breaking into the North American market is the next big challenge for the company.
As Alibaba takes that challenge on, Ma said he doesn’t see established American e-commerce companies like Wal-Mart Stores Inc., eBay Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. as competitors. People who call Alibaba “the Amazon of China” misunderstand his business, he said.
“We’re not an e-commerce company. We’re an e-commerce infrastructure company,” he said. “We are not interested in doing local business. We are interested in bringing the local businesses to China.”
As Ma plots his expansion plans for Alibaba, he’s also starting to think about retirement. At 53, he said the business consumes his every waking hour, but he’s looking forward to the day when he can leave it behind and “totally enjoy my life.”
When that happens, he hopes to return to Canada and re-connect with some of the business owners who attended Gateway ‘17 in Toronto. He’s hoping they’ll remember the day as the catalyst for success and international growth.
“I want every small business in Canada to say, ‘Hey, why not sell this thing online to China, to Asia?” Ma said.
“I want to see hundreds of thousands of businesses say, ‘Alibaba works. I made a lot of profit.’”