Jack Ma on China’s rise, its place on the global web, and what young entrepreneurs should do
Alibaba founder Jack Ma was at Davos last week, and in his public chat
he said some pretty interesting things. But during his time there, he also sat down for
an exclusive interview with Chinese website Sina Tech. In it, he waxed lyrical on everything from the symbolic nature of China’s internet sector to how he thinks China’s young entrepreneurs should view the world.
We’ve translated all the highlights for you here.
On whether the rise of China’s internet sector is a symbol of national success:
Yes, I think the development of China’s internet sector shows that China has made great strides in the thirty years since
reform and opening up; China really is reforming. People have lots of opinions about China’s internet, and of course nothing is perfect, but the rise of the internet community in China shows that China’s thirty years of reform have been successful. Now of course everyone hopes things will become even more open, everyone wants to do better. I think that will come step-by-step, and that’s a good thing.
On the Chinese internet industry’s place in the world as it expands:
Of course I think [China’s internet expansion] should not be about making the world understand China, it should be about China participating in the world economy. China should participate in the creation of the world economy, participate in the creation of economic value. If we only see ourselves as a globalized seller of Chinese products, we will not be respected.
On the next big opportunity in China’s internet sector:
Here, the Sina Tech interviewer pointed to an old Chinese saying: even a pig can fly in a strong breeze. He said that over the years the internet has had strong breezes in various sectors that have allowed many new companies to be successful, and asked Ma where in the internet industry he thought the next “strong breeze” could be found. Me responded:
First of all, a pig can fly in the wind, but when that wind dies down it’s the pig who’s going to fall to his death. Because he’s still a pig. What everyone has to think about is how to control the wind, how to grasp that wind and push yourself up. I think we shouldn’t seek the next strong wind; we should make ourselves into people that can fly at even the slightest breeze, people who can soar.
I have seen a lot of Chinese internet companies grasp every opportunity, and a lot of other companies that fell down because they missed out on opportunities. That [missing opportunities] hurts the economy, hurts employees, hurts society, and hurts the company.
On online banking services as a part of the Alibaba ecosystem:
Alibaba’s mission is to make business easy, and our main target is helping small and medium-sized enterprises [SMEs]. Other than their problems with finding buyers and sellers, SMEs also have funding problems, liquid capital problems, supply-chain management problems, high-tech problems…these problems require a lot of hard work, lots of people working together. So I think online banking services are a way of looking at how to use internet technology and internet thinking to understand the financial problems SMEs have.
On government oversight and regulation of online banking:
The oversight problem is very normal. Innovation coming before oversight is very ordinary; the development of anything new will have this problem. But to tell you the truth, I am really grateful to China’s oversight authorities for their lenience and support over the past few years.
To put it another way, although there have been all sorts of problems, Chinese banking authorities’ openness and support for internet banking has been first class. Aside from China, there’s nowhere else in the world that has a
truly online bank. China does have one, and it’s developing well, so I very much approve of what China’s regulatory authorities [have been doing].
Advice for young Chinese entrepreneurs:
I think that first, you absolutely have to be optimistic about tomorrow. Every change is an opportunity; without change where would the opportunities for young people be? Many societies have no change, many industries have no change, and they’re totally dominated by old people. To the young, change is a good thing, so trust in the future.
Ten years ago, we [today’s internet giants] were all lost too, we all thought that Bill Gates had taken all the opportunities away. IBM was doing so well, what could we do? Microsoft was doing so well, GE, all industries have a leader. 15 or 20 years ago, who had heard of Google or Facebook? Who had heard of Alibaba or Taobao? […] the changes over these 15 years have been pleasant surprises, and I trust that over the next 15 years there will be more good surprises. Everybody just has to look at them clearly, start small no matter how big your ideals are, and know that even the most successful company has bumps, setbacks, and lots of losses.
