Reform era: 'The Great Times' for Ma Yun

Ma Yun, also known as Jack Ma, is a Chinese Internet entrepreneur. He is Executive Chairman of Alibba Group, a family of highly successful Internet-based businesses. He is the first entrepreneur from the Chinese mainland to appear on the cover of Forbes Magazine and ranks as one of the world's billionaires.

Ma was born in Hangzhou, east China’s Zhejiang Province. Although he failed the college entrance exam twice, he eventually attended Hangzhou Normal University and graduated in 1988 with a bachelor's degree in English. In university, Ma was elected chairman of the student union. He later became a lecturer in English and International Trade at the Hangzhou Dianzi University.

Ma first started building websites for Chinese companies with the help of friends in the U.S. He recalled: "The day we got connected to the Web, I invited friends and people from TV station to my house," and on a very slow dial-up connection, "we waited for three and a half hours and got half a page.... We drank, watched TV and played cards, waiting. But I was so proud. I proved (to my house guests that) the Internet existed."

In 1995, Ma founded China Yellowpages, which was widely believed to be China’s first Internet-based company. From 1998 to 1999, Ma headed an information technology company established by the China International Electronic Commerce Center, a department of Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation. He founded Alibaba.com in 1999, a China-based business-to-business marketplace site which currently serves more than 79 million members from more than 240 countries and regions. Ma now serves as Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group, a holding company with nine major subsidiaries – Alibaba.com, Taobao Marketplace, Tmall, eTao, Alibaba Cloud Computing, Juhuasuan, 1688.com, AliExpress.com and Alipay.

In November 2012, Alibaba’s online transaction volume exceeded 1 trillion yuan.

Edited and translated by Zhang Qian, People's Daily Online