One - how to prove that no one else has seen the Internet - talk about it and do it

"China's Yellow Pages" is a business that puts information about domestic organizations on the Internet so that foreigners can find them. The business of "China Yellow Pages" is to put the information of domestic organizations on the Internet, so that foreigners can find him. But at that time there was no Internet in China, no one could see or touch, belonging to the category of "believe it or not".

The entrepreneurial team received the customer information translated into English, and then express delivery to the U.S. partners to make a web page - to see the things that can not be willing to pay, change which bosses will not believe ah. So not only did Ma's team have to prove that the customer data was online, they also had to prove that there was such a thing as the Internet in the world in the first place.

Ma Yun does not understand technology, can do things is to keep saying, he went out every day to people about the magic of the Internet, but also in the stalls with people kangan blind blow. The boss didn't believe him, so in addition to printing out web pages, he also asked his boss to make a free transatlantic phone call to ask his relatives and friends in the United States, so that Americans could check the Internet.

Shanghai finally opened the Internet in 1995, "China Yellow Pages" team also provides additional services - long-distance calls to Shanghai and then access to the Internet, it took three and a half hours to look at the photos on the Internet, as anxious as a hot pot of ants Ma Yun! The tears of aggravation fell down in a flurry of joy.

In many cities without the Internet, Jack Ma is always called a "liar". This is also the original source of the saying "Ma Yun is a liar".

II - "this thing you should first about"

Ma is now the chairman of the board of directors of the Alibaba Group, but back then it was just a "salesman". In the CCTV documentary "Scholar Ma Yun", the skinny Ma Yun combed his hair, carrying a black shoulder bag, knocking on doors and looking for people, saying, "I'm here to sell the Chinese Yellow Pages." Confused and impatient people "invited" him out of the door. One writer-director simply told the reporter that he didn't look like a good person!

In 1996, Jack Ma went to a state commission in Beijing to sell his products, saying that "China Yellow Pages is for a state commission to do publicity on the information highway, to put all of China into computers, so that the world can know about China", and he got a very impatient reply: "This is the kind of thing that you should make an appointment for, and if you don't, it's very difficult for me to make an appointment for it. What if you don't make an appointment, it's hard for me to give you a satisfactory answer."

Ma Yun's look is exactly the same as any salesman on the street, but the closed doors and blank stares he ate not only didn't change his belief in the Internet, but also became the spiritual impetus for the development of Alibaba's business, which may be the biggest difference.

Even after the founding of Alibaba, it was not uncommon for employees to go to companies to sell their business door-to-door, to be chased by dogs, and to be driven by security guards.

Three - before returning to the south to cry before the fourth consecutive business failure

Alibaba team worked in Beijing for a period of time in government programs, and finally Ma decided to go south to Hangzhou to start up again. During his 14 months in Beijing, Ma never took the team on a trip together, and on the last day they decided to go to the Great Wall. In the evening, in an unknown small hotel, the sky is snowing heavily, the crowd big bowl of wine, big piece of meat, together hugging and crying, and finally sang "true heroes", sing "true heroes" on the old songs, one after another, this group of traveled all over the world, they avoided the "parting" this is too heavy word for them.

Many people don't remember what Jack Ma said that night, and they don't know what kind of life they were going to face from the next day onwards, but that night, the wine was hot, the heart was hot, and the songs were hot. Everyone just remembers singing "True Heroes" for one night. This also means that at this point has been the fourth consecutive business failure since Jack Ma was 30 years old.

Wrecking - no one is optimistic, the least when there is only 200 yuan in the bank

In the outside world circulated about Alibaba received investment in the word, are dashingly mentioned 6 minutes to deal with Masayoshi Sun's 20 million dollars and Yahoo later 1 billion dollars, in fact, more pain is not known.

No luxury team configuration, there is no U.S. model of success to refer to, compared with Beijing, Shanghai, also Guangzhou and other places of counterparts, Alibaba was once the ugly duckling of the Internet industry. The Internet has always been known to burn money, Alibaba was founded also faced with financial pressures, the most embarrassing time in the bank only 200 yuan.

On one occasion, Jack Ma went to see an investor in Shanghai, and the other party came up with a harsh offer. Ma Yun is not satisfied but can not help but hesitate, so he slipped out to ask colleagues in charge of finance, and got the news: there is no money on the account. After going back, Ma Yun still gritted his teeth and gave up the investment.

He didn't say anything, and no one knows how tortured he was.

In the New York IPO roadshow after 15 years, Jack Ma only in the form of a joke to spit out that year's dilemma: "15 years ago, I was financing 2 million dollars, I came to New York, and failed to come back, 15 years I did not give up, this time to come to New York is to want to point out that more money to go back."

Wu - the company nearly collapsed due to "SARS"

Despite the fact that Alibaba often says that SARS has made everyone really concerned about e-commerce without having to go out. But SARS nearly crashed Alibaba.

When a staff member contracted SARS from a trip to Guangzhou for the Canton Fair, it put the whole city of Hangzhou on the spot, and the largest quarantine was imposed: more than 500 people were quarantined, and the mayor of Hangzhou, who had just come to visit the city the day before, ended up quarantining the mayor and his entourage as well. Employees from other companies in the same building ran like hell with their telephones, fax machines and computers, and someone from the company next door stormed into Alibaba to break something.

At that time, Alibaba was "famous" in Hangzhou, but its employees didn't dare to say that they worked at Alibaba on the street, and they were as afraid as if they had seen a tiger. Until the end of the quarantine, when they went out on the street, they were treated abnormally, and people pointed at them.

During this period, all the employees went home, and some companies may have been disbanded. But the work didn't stop there, and employees transferred their work calls to their homes, even as the elderly members of the family got into the habit of picking up the phone and saying the first thing: "Hello, Alibaba."

The impact was also felt on Taobao, which was still under wraps at the time.

Taobao was successfully launched on May 10, but because of the SARS quarantine, the scene was extremely chilly and even bleak -- no flowers, no big meals, no limelight, no cheerful music, no surging crowds. "In the slightly silent bedroom, lying in bed, Ma Yun faced the ceiling, slowly raised his glass of wine, devoutly and silently chanting: bless Taobao all the way to the wind. However, Ma is by no means alone, because he knows that at that moment, the same ceremony will take place simultaneously in more than a dozen residential houses scattered across Hangzhou."

Therefore, May 10 is designated as "Ali Day" by Alibaba, recalling the trials and tribulations of SARS and thanking the families of employees for their participation. Jack Ma also always not forget to remind everyone in the annual Spring Festival email to employees, "the night of the New Year's Eve, eight o'clock old habits, we toast to the air to give thanks and blessings."

Extended information:

Ma Yun, born on September 10, 1964 in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, with an ancestral home in Gulai Town, Shengzhou City, Zhejiang Province,? the principal founder of Alibaba Group, currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alibaba Group, Director of SoftBank Japan, Chairman of the Board of Governors of The Nature Conservancy in China and a member of its Global Board of Directors, Director of Huayi Brothers, Director of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation for the life sciences, and Co-Chair of the United Nations High-Level Panel on Digital Collaboration.

Graduated from the Foreign Languages Department of Hangzhou Normal College in 1988, and in the same year became a teacher of English and international trade at Hangzhou Institute of Electronic Industry, and in 1995 founded China's first Internet-based business information website, China Yellow Pages, and in 1998 became the general manager of China International Electronic Commerce Center, CroweCom Information Technology Development Co. In 1998, he became the general manager of China International Electronic Commerce Center (CIEC) Crowe Horwath Information Technology Development Co.

On May 10, 2013, he resigned as CEO of Alibaba Group and continued to serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alibaba Group.

Ma was elected Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Global Internet Governance (AGIG) on June 30th, and was invited to serve as a special economic advisor to British Prime Minister David Cameron in October.

May 8, 2016, Ma became Chairman of the China Entrepreneurs' Club.

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