How Jack Ma Achieved a Net Worth of Over $36 Billion

Jack Ma

Jack Ma is someone whose name has been mentioned more and more in the west in recent times. This is because he is the co-founder of the Alibaba Group, which is a huge Chinese multinational that specializes in tech products and services. Due to this, Ma is one of the richest men in China at an estimated net worth of more than $36 billion, which in turn, makes him one of the richest men in the entire world.

Ma was born in Hangzhou in 1964. For context, Hangzhou has been one of the more prosperous cities in China for some time, seeing as how it is the southern terminus of the Grand Canal that has played such an important role in facilitating internal trade in said country. Meanwhile, it is important to note that this means that Ma grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, meaning that he would have lived through the Cultural Revolution. Suffice to say that this was a very unpleasant time in Chinese politics, with the consequences being by no means limited to the higher tiers of Chinese leadership.

Net Worth$36 Billion
NameJack Ma
Age55
BornHangzhou
Birth DateSeptember 10, 1964
Source of WealthChinese Business Magnate, Investor and Politician
CountryChina

Regardless, Ma took an interest in English when he was still in school. For example, he would practice his English by speaking with people staying at the international hotel in Hangzhou. Furthermore, he would ride for 70 miles in order to give tours to interested individuals, which happened to include the man who winded up calling him Jack because he find it a struggle to pronounce Ma’s Chinese name. Eventually, Ma actually graduated from the Hangzhou Teacher’s Institute with a bachelor’s degree in English.

How Did Jack Ma Reach His Current Net Worth?

In those times, Ma struggled to find a job. For example, he has related an anecdote when he applied for a job at the new KFC that was opening up in Hangzhou, which resulted in him being the one person out of 24 who failed to secure a position. Eventually, he was introduced to the Internet in the 1990s by some of his friends, which in turn, led to him, his wife, and his friend starting up a business that specialized in creating Chinese websites for interested companies. However, that wasn’t Alibaba. Instead, he and 18 of his friends started up a business-to-business marketplace out of his apartment in 1999, which would proceed to grow into the tech titan that exists in the present.

For the west, Alibaba started gaining widespread awareness in 2014, which was when it held its initial public offering on the NYSE. There, it raised the $25 billion that it was seeking, thus turning it into one of the biggest tech companies in the entire world. Since then, Alibaba has continued to have incredible success, not least because it is buoyed up by the rising consumer market in China. For proof, consider how Singles’ Day in China has overtaken Black Friday in the United States and much of the rest of the English-speaking world, which has been helped along by Alibaba’s efforts in expanding its business.

Final Thoughts

Summed up, the source of Ma’s wealth shouldn’t be a mystery. After all, he has led the business that he helped to co-found into becoming one of the biggest and most powerful corporations on the entire planet, meaning that he has managed to reap much benefit in the process. Moreover, it seems probable that he will be continuing to reap the benefits for the foreseeable future in spite of the fact that he will be stepping down as the executive chairman of the Alibaba Group soon.

With that said, it is amusing to note that Ma has something of an interest in the entertainment industries as well. For example, he has been known to perform live at Alibaba events, with a particularly famous example being his Michael Jackson-inspired performance at the event held to celebrate the 18th anniversary of the corporation. However, the most famous example is the kung fu short movie that he made starring himself along with a number of high-profile celebrities. While the short movie was certainly what one can call interesting because of its rather curious nature if nothing else, people probably shouldn’t expect Ma to suddenly start making a great deal of money from his efforts in this regard in the future.

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