アリババの馬氏、中国2.0会議で12年間の歩みを振り返る (Alibaba's Ma Reflects On 12-Year Journey at China 2.0 Conference)

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[BLANK_AUDIO]
>> It's a great pleasure for us to give a warm welcome to, to Jack Ma.
Thank you.
[NOISE].
>> I it's my great honor.
And I was invited about months ago.
And it's, I did not expect people said this is a very sensi, sensitive time
for me to talk, because about a yahoo, about alibaba about this and all that.
But a promise is a promise I come.
Today [LAUGH] any questions you have.
I will answer any questions you have.
All right, so I've been here for 15 days and I plan to spend one year here.
And nobody knows, my company did not know, that I'm gonna spend a year here.
Guess people ask, why you're here?
Are you ready for catching Yahoo?
No.
[LAUGH] Everybody was very sensitive when I said I'm gonna spend one year there.
And I just come here, I'm tired.
Too tired, in the past 16 years, I start my business.
When I started 1994, find the internet, and I got crazy about the internet.
Give up my job in the teaching, and.
Like, I call myself like a blind man, riding
on the back of blind tigers, jumping around still kicking,
and still surviving, and then join the government organization
for 16 miles, and not successful start Ali Baba 1999.
And we built up the Alibaba.
We're lucky enough to have the Taobao.
We have the Alipay.
We have Ali Cloud Computing.
And so many things after 12 years, I say, I need some time to rest.
Especially this year, was so difficult for me.
I do not expect I prepare for twelve year in
china called [UNKNOWN] this is our twelveth year for Alibaba,and the
beginning of the year we have you know the moving for
the Alibaba to be CEO because of their custom cheating things.
And then we have the Alipay about the VIES,
I still don't know what the VIE is, right?
And then we have we have the the Ali Taobaos separated into four parts.
So many things that really make me feel tired.
And I said, well, why not give up one year.
Because next year is my personal [UNKNOWN],
which is, could be much more difficult.
This year was very tough and difficult.
I believe next year is gonna tougher and more difficult and more complex.
So I got ready for that.
And I need, think I need a rest, so in
order to, for another three, four years how to work it.
Because this three years is not my job.
If something wrong, criticize this president of Taobao,
CEO of Alibaba and Alipay, it's their fault.
Because three years, their fault.
Three years later, something wrong, my fault.
So, I come here and I spend most of my time in the states.
And then thinking, relaxing and just two days ago, I
picked up on my golf, and here, and just relax.
So nothing about, the things people think about.
So, we.
Are very lucky company.
And there is no chance that
we survived.
I don't have any sort of backgrounds, a rich father, or strong uncles or.
[LAUGH] And hm, I, I remember 1999, I came to silicon valley.
Looking for venture capitalist.
I talk to a lot of magic capitalist and I re, remember
few days when I drove by, by the [UNKNOWN] park, right?
I, I was, I was rejected by so many venture capitalist.
When I talk about Alibaba start ups they look at me strange.
What?
Alibaba, what are talking about?
Right I, I, I went back to China with nothing, no money, nobody invested in me.
But I full of confidence I saw the American dreams.
At the time 1999, I walk on the high express way, and on
the high express way every evening full of cars and of the parks.
Of the companies episodes weekends full of cars.
And people working day and night, and now, this
is something I believe is going to happening in China.
without it getting any venture capitalist.
But, I think I went back China with the American dreams.
And we started the business there, and after
12 years, you know, a lot of things happened.
We, we, we'd build up the B2B and nobody believed the B2B would work, because
the B2B at that time was good, but Ariba, I don't know if still there.
Yeah, Ariba, ariba.com, [UNKNOWN] and commerce one,
and these are very famous B2B companies.
People say, how can you do B2B in China.
Because B2B in the US is the focus of big companies.
They focus on buyers.
And we believe there's no big companies in China.
And I don't see that there are big companies, in, in
the short term that would China have a lot of big companies.
Because big companies only SOE.
SOE they do not need e-commerce.
They need is government policy, right?
So we focus a small business.
We bec, we believe.
China the small business, the private sectors are the future.
So we'll focus on that.
And the B2B in the U S the focus on buyers, they
want help the buyers to save the cost, to save the time.
We believe don't teach the SME, don't teach the small business how
to save the cost because, they know much better than you do.
You should help them how to make money.
So we focus on helping small business.
We focus on helping them to make money, to sell things abroad.
Very difficult to do business at that time.
But after 12 years we got more than 58
million small business around the world, using our services.
That.
That model is not very sexy.
Compared to [INAUDIBLE] we do not make that much money, like online gamings.
But we can sleep well in the evening,
because the money we make not online gamings.
The money we make, is helping small business to survive,
to get business opportunities, which I feel very proud about that.
And,
today, as always, I never feel proud of how much money we make.
I feel proud how much impact we can help the others, especially small business.
Before the history of internet, no company can help over 50 million SMEs.
Today, we are trying.
And I feel proud of that.
This is the first company.
And people say, Jack.
If you make Alibaba successful, that means you, you are pulling
a million tons of ship on the top of the Himalayas.
[LAUGH] And I say yes, we will carry that thing down.
And we did.
The second company is called the Taobao.
And everybody say, oh, my God you, are competing with eBay.
I said, why not?
China needs an e-commerce site.
And builder of the China market takes effort, takes time.
And takes great effort, you really want to build up something.
But at that time, people say, there's no chance.
Well, if you never try, don't, how do you know there's no chance?
So we try, and I said, we that, if, if, eBay are
the sharks in the ocean, we are the crocodiles in the Yancy river.
[LAUGH] Never fight in the ocean.
Let's fight the Yancy river.
It was difficult.
It was a lot of fun.
And we survived.
They got a 90% market share at that time, today
for [UNKNOWN] we're like a 90% market share and lucky.
Just lucky.
There are lot of things can be discussed in the future.
Today, people always write about the successful stories about Alibaba.
And I, and I really don't think we are so smart.
We made so many mistakes.
We were so stupid that time.
So I think Sunday the book I personally really
want to write about is as I said it,
isAlibaba 1001 mistakes, these are the things, [LAUGH] these
are the things people should remember, people should learn.
If you want to learn how the people, other people succeed it is very difficult.
There are a lot of lucky things right there.
But if you want to learn, if you learn how people fail, you will benefit a lot.
And I always rely to read those books, talking about how people fail.
Because, look, if you look into it, any company
that fail, the reasons why they fail almost the same.
And that really matters.
So, Taobao succeed and then we have the Alipay because everybody says China oh
no credit system banking is terrible logistics
terrible and how can you do e-commerce?
I never tell, it was just like today I come
here with no, without a PPT, without t my business.
And I'm not coming here to sell your business, sell my
business because I don't have stock to sell to you guys.
But
I think because China is not good at logistic, not
good at credit system, not good at a banking system.
That's why we need entrepreneurship.
That's why we go, we should go and build them up.
So, I believe if there is no,you build
it up, later this becomes the standard of China.
And I believe China needs that.
I remember
six years ago I came to the state, I told the USA audience,
I believe five years later China will have more internet users than the USA.
People said no.
I said, well you have only 300,000,000 population.
China 1.3 billion, right, for you guys to have 400,000,000 internet
users, without anybody dying, people having babies you'll take 50 years.
[LAUGH] We needed five years.
It's just the time issues, right.
So let's wait and see.
Today, we have more users.
And today people say, wow, you're buying capabilities low.
Let's see about five years later.
Five years later, today people buy, only spend 200 INB per day, per month.
Five years later, these guys will spend 2,000.
And we have patience.
We are young.
You know, I'm old.
But my people only 26 average age.
They are young.
That's way for the future.
So [COUGH] all he pay was just a very.
That time people say it's stupid escrow services, right?
John wants to buy things from Stephen, John
doesn't want to wire the money, and Steve does
not want to send the product, so we open an account and say, wire it to us.
If you're happy, we wire the money.
If you're not happy, return products, return the money.
People say, how stupid the model is [LAUGH].
Well,
we don't care whether it's stupid or not stupid,
we care whether the customer wants it or not.
Whether we really meet the need of the customers.
It is stupid, but after 7 years, we have
more than 600,000,000 users registered users in China using that.
So, stupid things, if you improve every day, is gonna
be very smart.
And we believe that.
So today it is good, and is growing, and it's like
a PayPal, but we are bigger than PayPal right now transaction wise.
And the last and most important, is Ali cloud computing.
And not like the other companies, they talk
about Ali c, they talk about c, cloud computing.
They want to sell you the hardware sell you the hardwares, the softwares.
We have nothing to sell you.
We just want to.
Computing our own data's because the data's we have from the SME's because the
data's we have the consumers fromTaobao data's from Ali pay so we
want, we believe in the future the world is going to be the data processing world.
How we can share the datas with the others, in a, in a.
In a great way.
Right?
So, that's the thing, that's the business about.
It's not that, good yet, but it is very profitable.
The whole company, looks healthy, so we are very appreciate.
We are, are the company full of thanks,
there's no chance we can win, now we survive.
I think, we always ask our own question, why we still working so hard?
I talk to colleague one day and he said, Jack, I never know
that in my life, I can do that much, second
I never know that the things I'm doing are that meaningful to the society.
And third.
I never know that life is damn set hard.
We work day and night, even now.
We work day and night.
I get so thinner, and strange, and [LAUGH] I understand.
Life is not easy.
We feel proud.
Because we are changing China.
It's not how much money you make.
When you see, I think, [INAUDIBLE] 10 years ago,
when I walk on the street, people thank me.
Because my Alibaba B2B, helped them to get orders across the ocean.
Today, when I walk on the street, the
young people say, Jack, thank you very much.
I op-, my wife and I opened a small shop on Taobao.
We make, we made a surviving, we had a great income and.
You know, this is meaningful thing.
We make the credit means money.
Years ago, if you have a great record
of credit, trust, but you're not, you're not rich.
Today if you have a good record on Taubau, you get
rich because people do business with those people who has good record.
We're teaching consumers to smack.
People say, Jack I bought something so cheap on Taubau.
Is that a fake product?
>> [LAUGH] >> Yes, we do.
Fake products are everywhere but we spend most of the efforts in China.
50% of the people in Taubau their
focusing on checking the intellectual property issues.
But there's a bottle of wine that cost us only nine dollars that
people buying it in the street, it's 300 dollars.
Why's that?
The channels, the advertisement, the TV shows.
Why consumers should pay that much?
So we cut that and we make things changing so tell the consumers
say this T-shirt you buy on TauBau maybe $30 or $15.
You buy in the shop, $150.
Not because Taubau is selling cheaper.
Because that shop sell too expensive.
We should teach the consumers to be smart.
And the third, very important.
We saw so many factories in China, especially in Canton.
They're not a company.
They're not even a factory.
They just, oh yeah, they just sell things they're just a manufacturer.
They, they, they don't know who are selling for
them and they don't know who are the customers.
So anything come, they're all in trouble.
So we should tell the manufacturers, you have to contact the consumers yourself.
You have to sell yourselves.
Serve yourself.
Then this is a real business; otherwise, it's just a workshop.
Now we're changing that, and aren't you proud?
And we are honored.
It's not about money.
Because we believe, we have one million [UNKNOWN] or
one million U.S. Dollars, you are a rich man.
When you have 10 million U.S. Dollars you are in trouble.
You worry about increasing [UNKNOWN] and you know,
you start to invest, you get into trouble.
When you have one billion, that's not your money.
It's the societies trust.
The, the shareholder.
The people believe you can spend this money smarter than the government.
You can spend money than the others.
So they give you their trust.
How can you do this trust?
How can you, you know, treat this trust well?
And I think we are facing this challenge.
And the product for Ali Baba is not the people.
It's not the, the service.
It's the people, the employees, the colleagues.
The average age of the company is 26 years
old, and we are facing so many challenges guys.
I never realized that.
One of the key government officers of another
country visited them, they say Jack oh my
God, you have 300 million users on Taubau
and the population is much bigger than my country.
[SOUND] I said, yeah, it is difficult, any policy we're making.
We get in big trouble.
Because people say "this is pretty good."
If some people complain, it's just like a government policy making.
And those people who are making policies, their average age is 26.
We have never met this kind of things, if we change in like a search engine.
The normal search engine, you pa-, who pays better, who looks on the top.
We believed we should have put the trust record, the credible record on that.
And then, we put that, lot of people say, we will demonstrate.
200 people last year came to our company, demonstrate, say, Jack.
You changed the policy, you gotta pay, no.
I say, if it is right, let's do
it.
And, this is the world we're changing.
And, now today, what we need is not
pure programs, not service people, and product manager.
What we need is sociologists, economist and those
guy who make the principles and the policies.
So we're facing a lot of chal, challenge, challenges.
But we feel proud, because I believe in the 21st century.
If you want to be a successful company, you have to learn, how
to solve a problem of the society, instead of catching one or two opportunities.
It is so easy to catch opportunities, and it, I'm not bragging, I think
today, after 12 years of jumping around, I find that making money is very simple.
But, making sustainable money, and responsible to the society, improve
the world, meanwhile making a lot of money, is very difficult.
And this is what we are trying, and
we think China, because of internet, is improving.
And three years later, I'm prepared for that.
Today, people say, ugh.
China stock.
Internet stock going down.
That because of the VIE, because of what, no.
I think look at the US economy.
They're facing big challenges.
Europe, probably going nowhere.
All right?
[LAUGH] China.
Anything that happens today in the US and
Europe is gonna happen in China three years later.
China is a big challenge in three, four years later.
If you know something bad is coming, get ready for it instead of screaming now.
Instead of complaining.
And as internet companies, we have to take a responsibility.
And my job.
I'm not politician, I'm not speaking for the government, I
speak for myself, for our own business, speak for my customers.
50 million SMEs and 8 million top of
power sellers, how they should survive 3 years later.
This is something, I wanna come to the states,
learn how Obama, say I'm gonna create the jobs.
How he did that?
Any mistake we should learn from it and three years later let's solve it our way.
This why I'm here.
So, I think you all have a lot of questions
and I'm ready to answer any questions you have because
I don't know what, what to talk about later.
Because I'm just here.
It's just a free talk right?
Thank you very much, any questions you have?
>> People line up the mic on this side.
Thanks.
Oh, Mr Marr, you brought it up first so I'm going
to make you answer your own questions and be honest about it.
Are you going to buy Yahoo?
>> Good question.
Yes we are very interested in that.
We are very interested in Yahoo.
Because our set Ali Baba group was so important to Yahoo.
And Yahoo itself also very very important to us.
To the internet users and to the industries.
So, yeah.
We are interested and also all the Pees and all the serious buyers.
They already talked
to us, and they, they,
they, they should talk to us more.
>> Have you made the initial approach to them about,
have you made the initial approach to them about buying them?
>> I just assure that we are very interested right now.
[LAUGH] >> Thank you.
actually, I'm not gonna ask that tough question.
I, I was actually encouraged by Joe this morning.
And, he said that anything about
the, CineMode and, I.
VIE mode and just ask Jack and help with the right person answer
and okay seriously this is a question that I know that PRC
government has adopted the national security
review system against the MNA Merge and acquired they are
a PRC company by the foreign, By the foreign companies.
So my question is, how do you view the impact of the
the scrutiny by the PRC government and specifically, do
you think that's gonna adversely impact for the PRC complaint
go offshore, I feel like, get financed from, from, from abroad.
>> Okay, yeah.
>> So that's my question.
>> Probably, I'm sorry for those, I was, I will answer this question in Chinese.
Which, probably more specific, any English
translation probably, you know, people can help.
Cuz so many people talk about a VI.
I got confused, I spend a lot of
time these days understand, what the hell is that?
[LAUGH] Okay, English, right.
Just be fair, English.
First, [COUGH] VIE is a great, innovation.
And I believe it's a great innovation.
10 years ago, I've seen the model.
It's great.
It helped China, grow, on the internet, and all the other high tech industries.
Which we Ali Baba also benefit a lot.
And I don't see the government is going to take that thing down.
I never feel that and I don't know why people worry so much about that.
But some sensitive areas, some industry, some sectors,
like finance, like, I don't know, what else.
These things the government have concerns about VI
structure which I understand that we should support.
For example.
If anybody want to get a bank.
Banking license in China are like 20, 20 % foreign capital owned.
If you run across that any nation, we're against it.
So VI structure, I did not see any government
say well I'm going to shut that thing down.
What worry about?
We should put
these thing on the, on few
days ago I read an article about a show [FOREIGN] right, you know.
So?
[FOREIGN] [LAUGH] But [FOREIGN] [FOREIGN] We got make this VIE.
Really legal.
Transparent.
This is the power of internet.
Making sure, if it is good after ten years.
Testing, it is good.
Why not open?
If any tiny sensitive area, that if
you're not comfortable, join us, discuss about that.
So I, I don't know.
People say, well something wrong with the Alipay.
Oh, I'm honored.
Right because of that we open VIE.
Cuz, tell the truth, when government, the PBOC, the main house or how many quests.
All EP has foreign capital.
I have to tell the truth guys.
Do you agree?
If the government say do you have foreign capital?
I say, no, but I have.
This, this won't work, because we are getting bigger, right?
just today if I come to say I wanna buy a, I wanna
buy the PayPal, do you think the US does not have any proof?
No, they won't, even with
Yahoo, right?
So we have to be fair it's not that big issue.
It's gestured, it's gestured.
Let's face it, open it, discuss it, and I
don't see the government is gonna shut that down.
All right?
I hope I answered your question.
Yeah.
[SOUND].
>> Hi Jack.
I think we haven't been, seen each other for more than ten years.
>> Oh yeah?
>> And you look terrific today.
So I'm very happy.
>> Thank you.
[LAUGH].
>> I believe you went through a lot of difficult things in past ten years.
So, you also mentioned that one day you will write a book.
So my question is would you like to share just one thing with us first?
And you would do differ, differently for something, one thing.
>> Okay.
>> Yeah, okay.
>> All right, thank you Michelle, right?
Michelle Tan.
>> Yes.
>> We we know, [UNKNOWN] not see for ten years.
yeah, we've gone through a lot of tough days.
If today, when something's smooth, I just feel uncomfortable.
[SOUND] That's, that's true.
In the US they call it very paranoid.
I am, yeah.
But, the mistake we made a lot for Yahoo China, I think, when we acquire
the Yahoo China, if people ask me whether we would do it again, yes I will.
But, whether we would do it in this way, no I won't.
We would do a much better smart way
because we had no any experience of acquisition.
Especially acquire an internet company.
And we've made a lot of mistakes there, and that helped us today.
So, when you ask me about whether I'm interested in Yahoo, yes of course.
I think we are probably one of the very few
companies really understanding Yahoo, USA very well, because of that.
And people say, whoa Yahoo China is
terrible, how could you still talk about that?
I mean, terrible running.
No it's not terrible running.
We solved problems four years ago, so we cut the Yahoo China.
If we did not we would have died today.
So, we would share these mistakes.
How we acquired, how we treat the culture things, how we fire people.
We should fire some people earlier, we should keep some people.
You know, these are a lot of detailed things.
I believe any companies in the, in the future will learn.
And, and I think today I'm not talking about Yahoo USA.
But we think about how internet companies in
the USA and in China should learn from Yahoo.
We all face the same challenge.
If we do not learn the mistakes the other people make.
So that's, that's, I think, I wanna share with the mistakes.
Thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> Hi, Jack.
I had three quick questions.
The first is, Taobao's been incredibly successful.
How do you manage and prevent it from the being the victim of its own success?
How do you stay nimble?
You know, eBay itself has sorta stagnated as it got this large.
Second is, given the competitive landscape of companies like 360Buy, will
you be forced to do more on the logistics side, take title?
>> Will be forced to what?
>> Forced to build out your own
logistics, take title, and therefore that change model.
And last is, I've read a lot of things
about your account of what went on with Alipay.
It'd be interesting to hear it, if you could do, do it over again.
What would you have hoped [UNKNOWN] and Jerry would have said to you.
How would have wished that dialog would have gone as opposed to the way it went.
>> Okay, the first Taobao yeah, Taobao grows so fast.
And will grow even faster in the future.
Big challenge is we have never grown such a huge
company and I, I don't believe the internet thunders empire thinking.
I hate the empire.
Empire thinking means
join me or I kill you, and I don't like that model.
I believe the eco system.
I'm I'm board member for TNC, The Nature Conservancy.
I believe the everybody should be connected to
each other, help each other it's eco system.
So Taobao becomes so big so fast.
And I worry about that I should giving
the industry some opportunity give competitors some opportunities.
So in June, we separate Taobao into four paths because people
talk to me they say Jack, you've been there for nine years.
We think it's very different to compete with you because you are already so big.
Okay, I will become smaller so you will compete.
[LAUGH]
If ten years later, I"m still bigger than that.
I will put another three pieces, each.
Making sure we run big company like a small company.
Giving the people the, the, the, the young people opportunities to run the business.
Because it's their business.
Taobao like Facebook, like a Google, like Tencent, they are not Chinese companies.
They do not belong China.
They do not belong USA.
They belong this time, 21st Century.
You have to using a different way to run this company.
Honestly say, what is the best methodology?
What is the best mental thinking to run that company.
I don't know.
We are testing, and we already take mistakes.
So, we believe the ecosystem.
We do not believe the empire thinking.
So, that's why we're testing every way we could.
And, second question is, did leaving the competition.
365?
>> Will you be forced to right change your model.
>> I think they should change their model.
>> [LAUGH].
>> It's not about it's not about I don't feel anything wrong with Taobao model.
We are growing, we can make money very easily.
And, we can, we can support more people.
So, I don't know if we should change our model and I
don't buy this story about the buy things and the selling online.
This is, this is really stupid model of the internet, and I don't like that.
And logistic things, I tell you, last year.
The total in China packs deliver on the street is 2.1 billion packages delivered.
Taobao created nearly 1.1 billion.
And this year, we will probably create 3 billion package delivered on the street.
That.
We do not want have our own logistic system.
China probably needs 10 million people, delivering on the street.
How can we run a company with 10 million employees?
[LAUGH].
Right, 20,000 people.
Today we have, we have 23,000 people.
It's already a big headache to me.
So 10 million, crazy, nobody can do that.
So we should support logistic companies, to serve well,
to deliver well, to treat their well, the customers well.
This is what we wanna do.
Not, we do not wanna have our own logistic companies.
Never ever.
So we have the money, we have the inference,
we have the orders, how we can improve the society?
This is [INAUDIBLE] Jerry, I think I have answered
that many times, but I can answer you again.
They are good friends, they're good partners.
And, I in understand, in the beginning said Jack, how could you.
That, even today the VAs took for about it.
But I got clear, message you see.
Yes, and no.
So I
told them, I think today they're happy.
Now I'm not happy because I'm getting such a big
burden for Alipay, because today Ali be grow very fast.
But it is not a big, nice model yet.
You cannot make money out of it, but we are supposed
to pay that much money at the end to the company.
And I challenge is a challenge young guys let's create a good model for that.
So, I think it's a very health discussion between Jerry, Masa, and us.
But unfortunately, the rumor was out that I'd moved
the company out without the board meeting without notice.
I tell the truth.
They know and we discussed together, and today, the problems solved.
They're happy.
I'm half burnt.
[LAUGH].
But it's a challenge.Michelle, I'm placing a lot of opportun-, you know, tough days.
This is one of the tough things I have to face cuz it's
easy other guys, that, wow, you should do this you should do that.
When you know if Alipay die.
If Taobao die, if Taobao die, then eight million power sellers in trouble.
And I cannot do that, and if I do not
follow China law, I will drink coffee in Beijing every week.
[LAUGH].
Everybody wanted me to sit in there and drinking coffee,
and they say check, where you getting bigger, you're in trouble.
Be transparent.
Today, 21st century.
Everything should be transparent.
Otherwise, why we should work so hard for?
So, that's, that's what I'm telling.
I think there's no other way where I can zig around.
I just say, this is the reality.
We have to face it.
I hope we answered your question.
Thank you.
[SOUND].
Okay.
Thanks, thanks very much for a wonderful speech.
My question is how Taobao
you [INAUDIBLE] international collaborations in technology.
Cuz I heard Taobao now is still not open API for foreign countries.
I mean, non Chinese countries.
So, that means non Chinese countries not able
to launch their products based on Taobao platform.
So I wanna hear your opinion about this.
Thanks.
>> Okay, I love to.
We'd love to open the API for the non Chinese country, unfortunately
its about the payment,.
It's very difficult.
I, I have, you know, when I travel around, I see, so, so many oversees Chinese.
They say Taobao is wonderful.
Can we buy things outside China, sell things.
And a lot of foreign.
We are trying our best, and we think that if
the payment problem is solved things could be moved much faster.
And Taobao will never stay alone in China.
I said Taobao does not belong to China, it
comes from China, it belongs to the whole world.
It belongs to this generation.
Let's make sure, in the future it can
help more people, because, things really cool on Taobao.
Thank you.
>> Thanks so much.
>> Hi, Jack actually my question is kinda similar with hers, but,
>> You wanna buy things from here from Taobao?
>> No, but [LAUGH] of course I want to, right?
Cheaper and thank you Taobao you improved my life.
Okay, so, my question is that you have said there is no difficult business in the
world.
But the truth is for a lot of
foreign companies really difficult to do business in China.
And we have a lot of clients they want to go to China and actually.
Luckily.
How about Ali Group can profile the whole solution for
your actually from the high China from Alipay from everything.
But it's hard for them to know, there, there is a choice and
it's hard for them to kind of, crowd the policy part of government part.
So what's you mm, do you have any plan to help those foreign
companies?
Because Chinese still has a need for the foreign products.
>> Okay, thank you very much.
I think doing business is difficult anywhere in the world.
Foreign companies go to China, find problems.
And I think, and I believe, China's company come
to U.S. doing business, also face some big problems.
I don't see any very successful Chinese companies in USA.
I mean, you know, that we come here in the USA.
Are there any famous Chinese companies that come
to USA or Europe that is very good?
>> Always.
>> Who?
>> Alipay.
>> Ali.
>> [LAUGH] Not yet, not yet, right.
>> Lenovo.
>> Lenovo?
Do you call that successful?
[LAUGH].
All right.
My, my thinking was that, in China,
we do have some successful foreign companies, right?
Microsoft is not bad.
IBM is not bad.
And we have a La Oracle and a lot of great companies.
The foreign company in China very successful.
Guys going anywhere doing business takes time.
I think my friend Careb [INAUDIBLE],
I, no market welcomes gamblers.
You go there, create a value for local people, have time, it will have chance.
So, I believe, that doing business, today.
In everywhere in the world is difficult.
China is.
My wife and I was debating yesterday when we were driving.
She think, oh no, to do business in the USA because
they have a Wal-Mart chain, a Waffle chain, everything is a chain.
Even the coffee is a chain.
She said, how can you have a small business?
And I said, wow, in U.S. it's easy for small business to just to.
So, there's a professor sitting next to us say.
We should have a big debate.
Which country is easier to business, U.S.A. or China.
And I think, China, today, if you still think about
we should follow the government, you know, guanxi, forget it.
I said again and again, 12, the past 12 years, every time I speak of China.
If you meet somebody come to you say, I have
a strong guanxi with that mayor, forget about this guy.
[LAUGH].
>> The only guanxi is, is the guanxi with the customer.
If the customer love you, the government would bet on they love you.
Trust me.
They need the tax.
The need the jobs.
>> [LAUGH] >> But if you wanna pick around, you know?
You're in trouble.
So I don't, I don't believe that, cuz my relationship with the government
in the past 12 years as a in love with them, don't marry them.
Always.
[LAUGH].
I love them.
Every time they come, I tell them the truth.
I do everything they tell me.
Yeah, okay.
Right, let's communicate.
But do business, sorry.
My friend does business with government not me.
In this way you get respect from them.
If it's that serious about Alipay just listen
to them because it's law it's now government guanxi.
So I give this advice.
It's always.
Scared, looking far away.
Oh my God, this is a difficult place.
Go there, test.
Jump into it.
You never learn to swim until you are in the water.
China is not that bad.
[LAUGH]...
But, people ask me why China has no, no Apple.
USA have capitalism for more than 200 years, right?
That thick fertilizers, people company die,
grow, die grow that's thick fertilizer.
China only 30 years after reform [UNKNOWN].
30 years have accompanied [UNKNOWN] and not bad, right?
So let's wait for another six, 30 years.
We will have them.
And that is not China, that belongs
to world, because it belongs to Internet time.
Belongs to the young people who were born 1990s.
And 1980s.
Your 2000s.
These are the people going to change the
world, and especially most of the students here.
And they are the future.
I'll believe that.
Thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> [NOISE].
>> I use the.
I used to work at eBay and PayPal, I know how much challenge you have.
Back to 2000 I don't know, do you remember you have the TV
advertisement in Australia that is two months before Senior Olympic.
I have an business trip there.
So, at that time, Alibaba just have two years out,
so you have the ambition to have globalization at that time.
So now, after ten, twelve years, right,
Alibaba has some more power to have globalization.
What is your future plan for it's
the global growing strategy and I think that's.
>> Okay, thank you, yeah [LAUGH] yeah right,
when we have money, we start to make mistakes.
When we have money, we have a beautiful office, we
hire people with MB, MBA degree, we hire with the VP
of multinational companies, and, and when we have a little
bit money, only have five minutes, we start think about globalization.
Jesus!
And then, we said let's back to basic B to C, back to China.
[LAUGH] Year 2002 [LAUGH] I remember we called that time, called it
B to C, back to China, back to basics, back to base.
All right, back to Central China.
The coast area, back to coast area.
[LAUGH]
Cuz we, we told ourself global vision, local win.
No matter how wonderful you think you have to step
on the ground, and do the things that hard work everyday.
So, so many years past.
Twelve years past, we still believe global vision, local win, but, we start.
We tested in Japan.
We tested Indian.
We tested European.
And, we tested also in for the past 12 year, we never shut down the U.S. office.
I'm now coming out, for one year.
I want to learn one thing.
And I wanted to ask you this thing.
To everyone here, here.
Fortune 500 CEO's in the world, they all
believe China is a big interesting mar market.
But nobody really give up things and come to China, to spend one year there.
Cuz if you really want to know China, you got to
spend some time, and me too, and i'm asking U.S.A., Europe
is gonna be a big market for us, and I just
wanna put down everything, spend time in U.S.A. for one year.
Get feeling, how we can help the U.S.A. SME.
How we can help the U.S., what's the
difference we can do between Amazon, Ebay and us?
What's the real value we can create?
When you think about that clearly, let's start to do it.
Cuz, we can not have, we never should finish a 20 year program, in two years.
Life is short.
Life is long, you cannot say I wanna finish that in two years.
We have time.
I'm that old, but I am still young, I am.
I have time.
[SOUND] Yeah.
So, we will go step by step, not asking about how much revenue we can bring out
of China, we will ask, what value, we really can bring to local people.
And we have already more than 15
million small business, outside China, using our services.
And we do not charge them.
And freedom, free is always the best.
We will, we will work on that.
Thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> Yeah.
[SOUND].
>> Jack [FOREIGN] [LAUGH].
>> [FOREIGN] Thank you.
>> [SOUND] I, I just welcomed Jack to the U.S. and
said I hope he can have a good rest while he's here.
So my question for you is, what do you
think is the biggest misunderstanding, that America has about China?
And conversely, what do you think is the
migget, biggest misunderstanding that China has about America?
[BLANK_AUDIO]
>> Honestly I don't know that question [LAUGH].
I think there are a lot of misunderstanding but I
was thinking about few days ago, writing something on my whiteboard.
Everybody believed that I know the world.
I know China cons, incompletely inside out.
No, you don't [UNKNOWN] do now know [UNKNOWN] do not know, nobody know China.
And everybody say, I know U.S.A inside out, no you don't know.
Obama don't know, other wise he would turn U.S.A out.
What?
George Bush does not know, it's very difficult
to know the outside, but you know yourself.
What do you need?
What do you want?
What will you give up?
If i know myself better, I can change myself to meet the outside.
There's always misunderstanding between China and the U.S.A., just
like there's always misunderstanding between Hunan people and Chinese.
[SOUND] Right?
Our job is not to solve the misunderstanding.
Our job is to change ourselves.
To suit the others.
So, I don't know, but, if that's why is, this is, is a good question.
I'm coming here, because I see so many American company, people
finger point at China, and they have never been to China.
A lot of Chinese people can criticize U.S., they've never been to the States.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
So, if we do not learn to appreciate each other, to
look at the [INAUDIBLE] and the more I spend at States,
the more I love U.S.A., and the more I come to
China I say wow, you know, it's, it's, it's communication, it's, so.
Political-wise, it's political, it's very difficult.
But there's only one thing that I think, I would be very happy to do.
Business.
I don't like online gamings.
I think, I believe the best gaming on the world is to make money.
[LAUGH] Helping small business cross the ocean.
Doing business, make them understand each other.
My grandfather know news by reading newspaper.
My father know news by listening to the radio.
Our generation know the world, by watching TV, our kids
know the world by the internet, they say, I wanna involve.
And I believe, this is the time that screwed up the internet.
Anything happen in the U.S.A., we know in China immediately.
Anything happen in China, most of the things, you know very quickly.
[LAUGH].
Well, let's, don't laugh.
Let's appreciate, most of the things.
Let's appreciate that.
Doing things step by step is important, instead of get everything one night.
Thank you.
[SOUND] Last one.
Yeah.
Sorry.
>> Jack, you, you mentioned that you spent some time here, in the early days of
Alibaba, and that you were rejected by a
lot of venture capitalists who you met with?
But there, there was one investor here in
Silicon Valley, who played a big role in Alibaba's
success, which was Jerry Yang, and Yahoo who invested,
I believe, a billion dollars into Alibaba in 2005.
Can you talk about your relationship with Jerry,
how that investment came about, and what your relationship
is like with him now, and how integral
that investment has been to Alibaba's growth and success?
>> Okay first, Jerry is a very good friend of mine, personal friend,
lifetime long-term friend, we have families, also are good friends.
And but, it's nothing personal, it's all about business, right?
Yahoo is invested us year 2005.
I think it benefited both sides.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
Without Yahoo U.S. investment.
We would not be that succesful today.
Because we need, we not need a cash to solve our problem.
We need that cash to solve the venture capital problem.
They do not see Alibaba has a future, they want a cash out.
So they have to put a [INAUDIBLE] not on the business side, mainly.
[COUGH] And without Yahoo deal we would never learn.
How to partner with a big company?
What's the big company's problem?
How we can improve our own culture and things?
But, in the future, if it was today's situation we
do not change, we will not have a bright future.
We have to do something.
So, I think, fairly speaking, we appreciate
yesterday, but we're looking for a better tomorrow.
Every company, should do that.
And today, and Jerry, and, you know, we're still pretty
close friends, and we talk, we chat, we play golf, baby.
In the future, the same, and we like, we like Yahoo.
I think this is, Yahoo is the company, at least one of the three companies, that
awaked, waked me up, about internet, and I appreciate, that all my life.
Without internet, there would be not Jack [UNKNOWN] and there'll
be no Alibaba [UNKNOWN] so, that's what my answer is.
Thank you very much.
[SOUND].
>> We have time, I think, I think [UNKNOWN] has a question from [INAUDIBLE].
>> Yeah, it's your, it's your friend [UNKNOWN].
>> Yes.
>> How are you doing?
So, two quick questions so, you talked about, you're interested in buying Yahoo.
One, have you visited Yahoo on this trip?
And two, how are you gonna buy Yahoo?
[LAUGH].
I'm interested in buying Yahoo [CROSSTALK].
>> No, I, I answer my question in a very honest way.
>> Well I hope so.
>> First question no.
I've been here for 15 days.
>> Yeah.
>> And most of time sleeping and reading.
>> Okay.
>> No, I don't have time.
Two, I think sleeping's more important now than.
Because there are gonna be tough, long way to go.
>> Okay.
>> Second, your question is about >> How.
>> How.
We are interested in, getting the whole.
>> The whole?
>> Yeah.
Whole piece.
>> The whole Piece.
>> Yeah.
>> Of your, of your Yahoo China stake, or the whole piece of all of Yahoo?
>> Whole piece of Yahoo.
[LAUGH] Yahoo China is already ours, right?
>> Right.
>> It's already in my pocket.
>> Right [LAUGH] [SOUND] WeIl [SOUND] I get it, the only thing I gotta say is
thank you in all this confusion for the
first crystal clear answer about Yahoo, about the company.
I appreciate it, as a reporter.
So, when's that gonna happen?
[LAUGH].
>> I don't know.
Honestly, I don't know, because it's, it's more complicated than we thought.
And there's so many people interested in that.
And we are also talking to them, they are talking to us.
And we think that it's, it's, it's, I was told it's so difficult, it's not
about money issues, it's about politic issues, inside issue, sport, you know.
So, I cross my fingers just to say, we are very, very interesting then.
>> Okay.
Perfect.
Thanks, Jack.
[SOUND].
>> Thank you.
[SOUND]