JACK MA

1964–

After struggling to get into college, then finding it impossible to sustain his first small business, Jack Ma had an epiphany when he visited the US and discovered the potential of the internet. Although his first two online commercial ventures proved unsuccessful, his persistence paid off—he went on to establish Alibaba, one of the giants of world e-commerce.

Jack Ma (born Ma Yun) grew up in Hangzhou, in eastern China, a city he has remained loyal to. His family had little money, and he struggled academically. He did realize the importance of communication, however, and set about learning English. He improved his skills by acting as a tour guide for English-speaking visitors—practicing the language and earning money at the same time.

Success did not come easily for Ma; he failed his college entrance exam twice and was rejected by many potential employers, including Kentucky Fried Chicken. After eventually qualifying as an English teacher, he taught at the Hangzhou Institute of Electronic Engineering for six years, then set up the Hangzhou Hope Translation Agency in 1994, although he still had to supplement his income by selling gifts and flowers.

His big break came on a visit to Seattle in 1995, where he discovered the internet. A friend told him about search engines, and Ma recalls that his first online search was for Chinese beer—which brought up no results. It seemed obvious to him that Chinese companies could benefit from accessing the internet, and on his return to China, he established China Pages to create websites for businesses. He was involved with the company for three years, but it lost its place in the market to rival Hangzhou Telecom, and he sold it. From 1998 to 1999, Ma headed an internet company in Beijing backed by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation. Feeling he might be limited by the constraints of government, he left after two years. With several false starts and now in his mid-30s, Ma might have been tempted to give up on the idea of starting a successful business, but, thanks to his characteristic determination, he did not.

Ma established his philanthropic foundation in 2014. One of its aims was to help improve education in China’s rural and impoverished areas.

Internet innovation

Ma returned to Hangzhou and, with 17 friends and former coworkers, launched the Alibaba Group, an e-commerce site that would go on to transform business in China and beyond. It was an online marketplace that made it easy for businesses to buy from and sell to each other. Ma believed this small-business-to-small-business model had more potential than business-to-consumer websites. Businesses paid one fee to be certified as trustworthy sellers, and a greater sum if they wished to sell to customers outside of China.

Ma’s vision paid off. Growth was rapid enough for American internet giant Yahoo! to take a 40 percent stake in 2005, and two years later, Alibaba launched as a publicly traded company in Hong Kong. The initial public offering (IPO) raised $1.7 billion. The company grew at a phenomenal pace, its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014 raising $21.8 billion. Alibaba was valued at $168 billion.

A few years earlier, in 2003, Ma had also launched an online marketplace for consumer-to-consumer transactions. Named Taobao (“searching for treasure”), it differed from competitors in that it did not charge a transaction fee but instead made money from online advertising. At the time, American rival eBay had an 80 percent share of the Chinese market, but within four years, Ma’s strategy had won Taobao a 67 percent share. It seemed everything he touched in the world of e-commerce turned to gold—quite an achievement for someone with no technical knowledge or training. Ma stepped down as Alibaba chairman in 2019, by which time the company was valued at more than $400 billion.

Jack Ma created a global e-commerce giant. From its origins as a trading platform for businesses, Alibaba has grown to include a consumer e-commerce site and a digital payment platform. It also has interests in a multitude of other sectors, from Hollywood movies and sports to cloud computing.

KATHRYN PARSONS

When British digital technology entrepreneur Kathryn Parsons founded the education company Decoded, her stated aim for it was to demystify the digital world. She promised that it would teach anyone to code in a day.

Parsons’s (1982—) vision has paid off. In August 2011, there were just 10 trainees in the first Decoded workshop in London. The numbers attending increased exponentially in the following years. By 2019, 250,000 had received training, there were 500 teachers, and permanent or pop-up offices had been established in more than 80 cities globally. Parsons’s advice is now sought by the UK government, and she sits on the board of the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy.

▲ A natural entertainer, Jack Ma performed on stage during Alibaba’s 20th anniversary gala at Hangzhou Olympic Center Stadium on September 10, 2019, in Hangzhou, China.