Jack Ma, the founder of the Chinese online giant Alibaba, is assigned as chairman of his company. Ma joined his 55th birthday today as announced a year ago to retreat. Ma’s successor will be Daniel Zhang, whom Ma himself had selected.
The fact that Ma would once forge the country’s largest listed company, making it one of the richest men in the country, with an estimated fortune of more than $ 38 billion (about 34.3 billion euros), was unimaginable even two decades ago
Entwined career paths
Not only did Ma fail with a bid to sell to the fast food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken. He also needed several attempts for the Uniaufnahmüfüfungen until it finally worked with the English course in his hometown Hangzhou. Only in 1995, when a job as a translator for the first time led him to the United States, he got to know the Internet.
Half a year later, his first website was online in China. However, the directory where Chinese companies could be searched became a flop. It was not until his second idea ignited: With money of $ 60,000 from friends, Ma founded Alibaba in 1999 – in his living room. Alibaba now has more than 650 million active users.
