Jack Ma facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Jack Ma
马云
Ma in 2018
Born	Ma Yun (1964-09-10) 10 September 1964 (age 60) Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
Education	Hangzhou Normal University (BA)
Occupation	Business magnate Investor Philanthropist Teacher
Known for	Co-founder of Alibaba Group
Title	Co-founder of Yunfeng Capital
Political party	Chinese Communist Party
Spouse(s)	Zhang Ying
Children	2 (a son and a daughter)
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	马云
Traditional Chinese	馬雲
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Mǎ Yún Bopomofo ㄇㄚˇ ㄩㄣˊ Wade–Giles Ma3 Yün2 Tongyong Pinyin Mǎ Yún IPA [mà y̌n] Wu Suzhounese Mô Yúin Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Máah Wàhn IPA [ma̬ː wɐ̏n] Jyutping maa5 wan4

Ma Yun (Chinese: 马云; pinyin: Mǎ Yún), known to many as Jack Ma, is a famous Chinese businessman and helper of others. He was born on September 10, 1964. Jack Ma started the Jack Ma Foundation, which helps people. He also co-founded two big companies: Alibaba Group and Yunfeng Capital. In May 2025, experts thought Jack Ma was worth about $27.2 billion.

Jack Ma worked hard to learn English. He later became an English teacher. He became interested in the internet in the 1980s. In 1994, he started his first business, a translation agency. The next year, he created a website for it. He then left his teaching job to start one of China's first internet companies. This company offered an online yellow pages service for businesses. In 1999, he co-founded Alibaba Group. It started as a way for businesses to buy and sell from each other online. Alibaba later grew into a huge international technology company.

Jack Ma is seen as a very important person in Chinese business. His influence changed after 2020. This was when Chinese regulators stopped a big stock sale for his company, Ant Group. This happened after he shared his thoughts about China's financial rules.

Early Life and Learning

Jack Ma was born in Hangzhou, China, on September 10, 1964. His birth name was Ma Yun. When he was young, he loved learning English. He would practice with visitors at a local hotel. At 12, he bought a radio to listen to English stations. For nine years, he rode his bike 17 miles (27 km) every day. He worked as a tour guide in Hangzhou to practice speaking English with foreigners. One of these foreigners became his pen pal and gave him the nickname "Jack." This was because his Chinese name was hard to say.

When Jack Ma was 13, he had to change schools because he often got into fights. He found school hard, especially math. It took him two years to get into a regular high school. He only scored 31 points in math on the entrance exam.

In 1980, Jack Ma met Ken Morley and his family from Australia. Ken's son, David, became Jack's pen pal. Years later, the Morleys invited Jack to visit them in Australia. Jack later said that those 29 days in Australia changed his life. He felt they helped him think differently.

Jack Ma tried to get into college three times. In 1982, he failed his first college entrance exam, scoring only 1 point in math. He tried to get a job as a waiter but was rejected. In 1983, he failed the exam again, but his math score improved to 19 points. In 1984, he tried a third time. He scored 89 points in math, a big improvement. Even though his score was still a bit low, he got into Hangzhou Normal University. This happened because the English department needed more students.

Once in college, Jack Ma did very well. He became one of the top students in the foreign language department. He was also chosen to lead the student union. In 1988, he earned his degree in English. After graduating, he became an English and international trade teacher. Jack Ma also says he applied to Harvard Business School ten times but was always turned down.

Starting His Business Journey

First Steps in Business

After finishing college in 1988, Jack Ma tried to get 31 different entry-level jobs. He was rejected from every one. He even tried to get a job at KFC when it came to his city. Twenty-four people applied, and 23 were hired. Jack Ma was the only one rejected.

In 1994, Jack Ma learned about the internet. He also started his first company, a translation agency. In early 1995, he traveled to the United States. There, he saw how the internet worked. He noticed there was no information about China online. So, he and a friend made a simple website about Chinese beer. He launched the website, and within hours, he got emails from people in China wanting to know more. This made him realize the internet's huge potential.

In April 1995, Jack Ma and his partner opened an office for their second company, China Pages. They registered the website chinapages.com. In three years, China Pages made about 5 million Chinese yuan. This was a lot of money at the time. Jack Ma also helped Chinese companies build their own websites. He remembered how slow the internet was back then. He said it took three and a half hours to load half a page. But he was proud because he showed that the internet was real.

From 1998 to 1999, Jack Ma led an information technology company for the Chinese government. In 1999, he left that job. He went back to Hangzhou with his team of 18 friends. In his apartment, they started Alibaba Group. It was an online marketplace where businesses could sell to other businesses. They started with about 500,000 yuan.

In late 1999 and early 2000, Alibaba received $25 million from investors. This money helped Alibaba grow and improve online shopping for Chinese businesses. Alibaba started making a profit three years later. Jack Ma wanted to make the global online shopping system better. Since 2003, he also started other popular services like Taobao Marketplace, Alipay, and Tmall. When the American company eBay wanted to buy Taobao, Jack Ma said no. Instead, he got a $1 billion investment from Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang. This helped Alibaba grow even more.

Leading Alibaba Group

Ma speaking at the 2007 China Trust Global Leaders Forum

Since 1999, Jack Ma was the main leader of Alibaba Group. Alibaba became one of China's biggest technology companies. It has many different parts, including Alibaba.com, Taobao Marketplace, Tmall, and Alipay. In 2010, Jack Ma announced that Alibaba would use 0.3% of its yearly earnings to help protect the environment. This money would go towards improving water and air quality. He said Alibaba's goal was to help people make money in a way that was good for them and for society.

Even though Alibaba is a technology company, Jack Ma was not a computer expert. He never wrote computer code or sold anything directly to a customer. His background was in English. But he was a great leader and organizer. He was good at finding and leading talented people in technology. He once said he only got his first personal computer at age 33.

In 2011, one of Jack Ma's companies took control of Alipay. This was to follow Chinese laws about payment companies. There were some disagreements about this change, but they were resolved in July 2011. By November 2012, Alibaba's online sales were huge, over one trillion yuan. Jack Ma stepped down as the CEO of Alibaba on May 10, 2013. However, he remained the executive chairman. In September 2014, Alibaba raised over $25 billion when its shares were first sold on the New York Stock Exchange. Jack Ma also owns several vineyards in France.

On January 9, 2017, Jack Ma met with then-US President-elect Donald Trump. They talked about how Alibaba could create one million jobs in the United States. On September 8, 2017, to celebrate Alibaba's 18th birthday, Jack Ma performed on stage like Michael Jackson. He also sang a song by Elton John at an earlier Alibaba event. In the same month, he worked with Hong Kong businessman Sir Li Ka-shing to offer a digital payment service in Hong Kong.

Jack Ma announced on September 10, 2018, that he would step down as executive chairman of Alibaba Group. He said he wanted to focus on helping others through his foundation. Daniel Zhang took over his role. Jack Ma left the board of Alibaba on October 1, 2020.

During Tech Changes

Between October 2020 and January 2021, Jack Ma was not seen much in public. This happened during a time when the Chinese government was making new rules for tech companies. Some news reports said his absence was linked to a speech he gave. In the speech, he shared his thoughts on China's financial rules and banks.

On November 3, 2020, the stock sale for Ant Group was stopped. Chinese officials said this was to keep the financial system stable. Ant Group made most of its money from financial services. This put it in conflict with China's central bank, which wanted to regulate it more strictly.

Jack Ma appeared in public again on January 20, 2021. He spoke by video to a group of rural teachers at a charity event. In May 2021, he resigned from leading Hupan University, a business school he founded.

In 2022, Jack Ma moved to Tokyo, Japan, and mostly stayed out of the public eye. From May 1, 2023, to October 31, 2024, he was a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo. He studied sustainable farming and food production. In March 2023, photos and videos showed Jack Ma visiting a school in Hangzhou, China. This confirmed his public appearance after several months. Reports said he was encouraged to return by Premier Li Qiang. In the same month, Alibaba Group changed its structure. Its different parts became six separate companies.

In January 2023, Ant Group made big changes to its ownership. Jack Ma's voting rights were reduced from 50% to 6%. This meant no single person had control of the company. The Chinese government saw these changes as positive.

In early 2024, Jack Ma became Alibaba's largest shareholder. On February 17, 2025, he attended a meeting with Chinese industry leaders in Beijing. This meeting was hosted by Xi Jinping. Jack Ma's image was shown on state TV, but his name was not mentioned by state media. This led to different ideas about what his reappearance meant.

Fun and Entertainment

In 2017, Jack Ma acted in his first kung fu short film called Gong Shou Dao. It was directed by Wen Zhang and produced by Jet Li. The film featured many famous martial arts stars. It was made to celebrate a big online shopping event. In the same year, he also sang and danced at Alibaba's 18th-anniversary party.

In November 2020, Jack Ma was replaced as a judge on the TV show Africa’s Business Heroes. An Alibaba executive took his place. This was reportedly due to a "schedule conflict."

Awards and Recognitions

Jack Ma has received many awards and honors for his work:

• In 2004, he was named one of the "Top 10 Economic Personalities of the Year" by China Central Television (CCTV).
• In 2005, the World Economic Forum chose him as a "Young Global Leader." Fortune magazine also named him one of the "25 Most Powerful Businesspeople in Asia."
• In 2007, Businessweek called him a "Businessperson of the Year."
• In 2008, Barron's listed him as one of the 30 "World's Best CEOs."
• Time magazine included him in its list of the world's 100 most powerful people in 2009 and 2014.
• Forbes China named him one of the Top 10 Most Respected Entrepreneurs in China in 2009.
• In 2010, Forbes Asia recognized him as one of Asia's Heroes of Philanthropy for his help with disaster relief and poverty.
• He received an honorary degree from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2013.
• In 2014, Forbes ranked him as the 30th-most-powerful person in the world.
• In 2015, he won the Entrepreneur of the Year award at the Asian Awards. He also received an honorary doctorate in education from National Taiwan Normal University.
• In 2016, he received the Chevalier of the French Legion of Honour from France.
• In 2017, Fortune ranked him second on its World's 50 Greatest Leaders list.
• He received honorary doctorates from De La Salle University in the Philippines (2017), the University of Hong Kong (2018), and Tel Aviv University (2018).
• In May 2019, the Secretary-General of the United Nations appointed him as an advocate for sustainable development goals.
• In July 2020, he received a first-class medal from King Abdullah II for his help during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• In August 2020, he was to receive a medal from the President of Pakistan for his help during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• In 2023, he won the Confucius Education Award.

Jack Ma's Beliefs

Jack Ma follows both Buddhism and Taoism.

In 2014, Jack Ma said that America's strength comes from its religious background. He believed China needed a strong value system after its past changes.

In 2017, Jack Ma suggested using big data and AI to help plan the economy. He thought this technology could fix problems that old planned economies had.

In November 2018, a Chinese newspaper said Jack Ma was a member of the Chinese Communist Party. This surprised many people.

Jack Ma received some criticism for supporting the "996 working hour system" in China. This means working from 9 AM to 9 PM, six days a week. In 2019, he said that 996 was a "huge blessing" needed for success. But he also said that artificial intelligence might lead to a future where people only work four hours a day, three days a week. He also believed that AI could never fully replace people. He thought success needed a "love quotient" that machines couldn't match. Jack Ma also predicted that a shrinking population would be a big problem in the future.

Helping Others

Jack Ma started the Jack Ma Foundation. This group helps improve education, the environment, and public health.

In 2008, Alibaba gave $808,000 to people affected by an earthquake in Sichuan. In 2009, Jack Ma became a trustee for The Nature Conservancy's China program. In 2010, he joined its global board.

In 2015, Alibaba started a nonprofit group called Alibaba Hong Kong Young Entrepreneurs Foundation. It helps young business owners in Hong Kong. In the same year, Alibaba helped rebuild 1,000 homes damaged by an earthquake in Nepal. They also raised money for 9,000 more homes. In 2015, he also founded the Hupan School, a business school.

In September 2018, Jack Ma announced he would retire from Alibaba. He wanted to focus on education, helping others, and environmental causes through his foundation.

In 2019, Forbes named Jack Ma one of "Asia's 2019 Heroes of Philanthropy." He also received a special award for his work helping communities in China, Africa, Australia, and the Middle East.

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Alibaba Foundation and Jack Ma Foundation sent medical supplies to many countries. These included the United States, various countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe.

See also

In Spanish: Jack Ma para niños