Who Is Jack Ma, Founder Of Chinese Giant Alibaba?

Investing.com - Lately, Jack Ma has been in the news for his performing ability displayed in Alibaba (NYSE:BABA)'s 18th anniversary party, when he came on to the stage to perform as Michael Jackson. However, behind the entertainer, hides the story of a business man overcoming adversity. Ma was born in 1964 in Hangzhou, China. Named "Ma Yun" at birth, he adopted the nickname Jack Ma given to him by a foreign pen pal who found it hard to pronounce his name.Although Ma practiced English since an early age, he struggled getting into college, and it took him 4 years to pass college entrance exams. These four years were not the only rejections Ma suffered early; he got turned down for 30 jobs, including a position at his local KFC, and was rejected from Harvard University 10 times.Ma's breakthrough came in 1995, with the internet. When Ma struggled to find information on China online, he created a page by himself, and creating websites became his first business. Within three years, Ma turned an initial investment of 20 thousand dollars, to 800 thousand dollars.Alibaba itself was born in 1999, when Ma and 18 friends decided to build a business to business online marketplace. Later on, Alibaba was joined by Taobao, a consumer to consumer marketplace, and Alipay. In 2014, Alibaba raised more than 25 billion dollars in the largest IPO in US history. After a few rough years on the New York Stock Exchange, Alibaba finally took off in 2017, and its share price jumped from 89 dollars to over 170 dollars. Jack Ma's personal wealth is estimated today at 38 billion dollars – not bad for someone who was denied a job at the local KFC.