Ma, Jack

Ma, Jack,

1964–, Chinese business executive and on-line retailing pioneer, whose Chinese name is Ma Yun. He taught English at Hangzhou Institute of Electronics and Engineering (now Hangzhou Dianzi Univ.; 1988–93), then founded the Haibo Translation Agency (1994). After a 1995 trip to the United States during which he became interested in the Internet, he began creating websites for small businesses in China. He was head (1998–99) of an Internet company in Beijing, then cofounded (1999) Alibaba, an online marketplace for businesses, in Hangzhou. The Alibaba Group has since become one of the world's largest e-commerce and digital payment companies; its subsidiaries include Taobao, an e-commerce website similar to eBay, and Alipay, an online payment service similar to PayPal. Ma stepped down as Alibaba's CEO in 2013; he remained as its chairman.

Bibliography

See D. Clark, Alibaba (2016).