Businessman

Till last month, any search involving Alibaba on Google invariably threw up Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Now, it’s only Alibaba.com.

All thanks to what Jack Ma did on September 19 — making his company Alibaba’s debut on the New York Stock Exchange with the biggest US Initial Public Offering (IPO), raising $21.8 billion.

Who is Ma? And what’s Alibaba?

In 2004, when eBay had just entered China, Ma declared: “eBay may be a shark in the ocean, but I am a crocodile in the Yangtze. If we fight in the ocean, we lose, but if we fight in the river, we win.”

And for now, the world seems to be the river for the 49-year-old.

For those who need to know the ABC of Alibaba, and how it’s the b-word for Open Sesame, here goes.

Fighter

What is Alibaba?

It’s a marketplace, a mix of Amazon and eBay. But unlike Amazon, Alibaba doesn’t own warehouses or goods. It’s more of a middleman between buyers and sellers, with a mission statement that reads: To make it easy to do business anywhere.

Two important components of Alibaba are its websites, Taobao and Tmall. The former is a marketplace that facilitates consumer-to-consumer (C2C) retail for everything from sunglasses to bridal dress to homes. Yes, somewhat like eBay. Tmall.com is a website for business-to-consumer (B2C) online retail. This is where Chinese and international businesses sell their goods. Brands include GUESS, Puma, Rado, Bacardi, Adidas, Lacoste, Triumph and Timberland.

The company’s sales for 2014, according to The Guardian, are estimated at $420 billion. How big is that? In 2013, the combined turnover of Amazon and eBay was $90 billion.

Where is it based?

The headquarters of Alibaba Group is in Hangzhou, China. This is where it all started in 1999 and like big tech giants, the company has handed out stock options to its workers, from senior executives to receptionists. The company has around 24,000 employees.

who is ma?

Jack Ma is Alibaba. Alibaba is Jack Ma. In 2008 he told Inc that he taught English in a school on a salary of $12-$15 per month. He became interested in e-retailing after going online in 1995 while visiting a friend in Seattle. Ma keyed in the word ‘beer’ and didn’t find any Chinese data to go with it. And he decided to change that.

why alibaba?

A San Francisco coffee shop waitress is behind the name Alibaba. On CNN’s Talk Asia Show in 2006, Ma said: “And then a waitress came, and I said do you know about Alibaba? And she said yes. I said what do you know about Alibaba, and she said: ‘Open Sesame.’ And I said yes, this is the name! Then I went on to the street and found 30 people and asked them, ‘Do you know Alibaba?’ People from India, people from Germany, people from Tokyo and China... they all knew about Alibaba.”

The IPO

The company made its New York Stock Exchange debut on September 19, raising $21.8 billion. Trading under the ticker symbol BABA, stock prices opened at $92.70, 36 per cent higher than the $68 offer price and levelled off at about $90. That would value the company at between $220 billion and $230 billion, according to The Times, London.

FIRST COMING

The first time Alibaba went public was in 2007 on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. It traded for a few years.

Lucky number

Ma believes in the power of eight. The roadshow for the IPO began on September 8. The offer price was set at $68 a share. The holding company was founded on June 28, 1999 and it had 18 founders. And, it dominates 80 per cent of online commerce in China.

ooi ma!

Forrest Gump is his inspiration. Ma finds inspiration in this Tom Hanks movie. “Every time I’m frustrated, I watch the movie,” he said on the New York Stock Exchange floor. “I watched the movie again before I came here. It’s telling me, ‘no matter whatever changes, you are you.’”

ma on song

At the company’s anniversary function in 2009, Ma appeared on stage wearing a black leather jacket, sunglasses and lipstick before ripping into the song Can You Feel The Love Tonight.

Rock star

ma the fighter

Besides Alibaba, his interest in Tai Chi powered a school, Taiji Zen, with action movie star Jet Li in 2012-13. It is located in Xixi National Wetland Park.

2 sides of tech coin

The Alibaba bigwig uses computers only to browse and work on emails. He has no idea about coding. He said in a 2011 interview: “I believe technology is for the people. We should tell the technology guy what the consumer wants. What the people want. Because I believe 80 per cent of the people in this world are like me — we love technology but we are scared of technology.”

snapping at India?

The stories doing the rounds involve Alibaba investing in Snapdeal, which had earlier this year found an investor in Ratan Tata. Often referred to as the “Alibaba of India”, Snapdeal was started by Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal in February 2010.

Yahoobaba

Ma owns only 8.9 per cent of Alibaba, which makes him the largest individual stakeholder but tech firms Yahoo and Softbank have a much bigger stake. And though there are 28 partners, the power centre is controlled by Ma. Before the IPO, Yahoo had, according to CNET, a 22.6 per cent stake in Alibaba.

i for investment

Alibaba has invested in Uber rival Lyft (in April 2014), the on-demand ride-sharing start-up. Also in US e-retail site 11 Main, mobile messaging app Tango, app search engine Quixey and sports e-commerce company Fanatics...

shape the world

Ma recently told CNBC, “We want to be bigger than Walmart. They changed the business last century... we hope that 15 years later, they say, ‘(this) is a good company like Microsoft, like IBM, like Walmart. They shaped the world’.”

ma army

Ma’s successful entrepreneurial journey has inspired 130-odd Internet businesses, according to Itjuzi.com, which keeps track of investment in domestic tech companies. And these are all headed by Ma’s former employees. Some of their start-ups are Mushroom Street, Didi Dache, WiTown and Tongcheng.

Money and ma

When asked by CNBC last week how he would spend his billions, Ma said: “For me? Well, this is a headache thing… 14 years ago, I asked my wife, do you want me to be a rich man or a respected businessman? She said, of course, a respected businessman, because she never thought I would be a rich man. My job is spending money to help others. This is a headache.”