Jack Ma & Alibaba

[GeneChing]

Good ol' Jack Ma. I'm hoping in his charitable ventures, he'll help fund our magazine someday.

Chinese Billionaire Buys 28K Acres of American Forest to Preserve It
Photo of the Dayby Terry Turner - Dec 11, 2015


Brandon Reserve screenshot LandVest Vimeo

The Chinese billionaire behind online shopping giant Alibaba has placed an order for 28,000 acres of pristine, American wilderness – in a $28 million dollar bid to preserve wildlife, fish, and forests in the rugged mountains of the Northeast.

Jack Ma, China’s richest man and a noted conservationist, plans to turn the Brandon Reserve in New York’s Adirondack Mountains into a wildlife sanctuary and protect its timber and water from logging and mining operations in the region.

His first action as owner is to stop the logging operations already going on there.

Ma’s purchase includes land along nine miles of the Saint Regis River, a trout fishery, multiple homes and barns, and even its own maple syrup operation.

(WATCH the video from LandVest below to see the property or READ more at Town and Country) — Photos: LandVest, Vimeo

[GeneChing]

Crouching Jack And His Hidden Dragons
Team Inc42
March 22, 2016 10 min read



Jack Ma, the founder of China’s largest ecommerce company Alibaba, is neither a Harvard nor a Stanford graduate. He was actually rejected by Harvard, 10 times. He is just street smart, and it has worked wonders for him. At least, so far. Slowly and carefully, he has been making his move towards India, like a tiger who is waiting for the right moment to pounce on its prey.

And it seems, he has just made the big leap. Alibaba, the NYSE listed online retailer who debuted with the world’s biggest ever IPO, has announced its entry into India. But, how he will execute this plan is not yet known.

The country’s domestic ecommerce marketplace is already dominated by homegrown biggies like Flipkart and Snapdeal, along with a strong presence of US-based Amazon.

Also, the Assocham report states that the Indian ecommerce market is poised to be worth $38 Bn by the end of 2016, which leaves a surfeit of opportunities for the etailers in this segment.

Hence, it is a good time and chance for Alibaba to mark its entry in the B2C ecommerce segment, although, it has been trying to enter the Indian consumer market for a long time. In May 2015, Alibaba had reportedly tied up with Paytm to add about 1 Mn merchants from China on Paytm’s platform, along with adding 100 million SKUs. But it seems that the deal did not strike off. Though the Chinese ecommerce firm could not establish itself in the B2C space, it has been operating in the B2B ecommerce business since 2009, after it entered into a strategic partnership with Infomedia. Its B2B division is said to have over 4.5 Mn sellers on board in the country.

In one of his statements, Jack Ma, Chairman of Alibaba Group, had said that

India is a crucial market and Alibaba must have a strategy to crack it

Enter – The Dragon

Last week, Alibaba Group president Michael Evans and global managing director K Guru Gowrappan met Communications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Tata Group’s Chairman Cyrus Mistry to share their plans for the company’s interest in India and a possible partnership.

“It is a positive announcement for the Indian market. It is a validation that India is a high potential market. The negative impact is that there will be competition pressure, but overall it is good news,” says Brijesh Agrawal, co- founder of IndiaMART. IndiaMART competes with Alibaba in the B2B category.

A senior government official told ET,

Alibaba is very keen on coming to India in a very big way, particularly in the ecommerce sector. They’re only exploring the way whether to go on their own or set up shop with someone else.

The ecommerce market in India is much ripe and ready to accommodate as many players as possible. Goldman Sachs projects that India’s online retail market will expand to $36 Bn in 2016-17, which has emerged as a significant battlefield for the world’s largest ecommerce companies.

As per Morgan Stanley, electronics and fashion are the dominant categories in India and the online penetration in these two categories is set to increase from 3-5% in 2014 to 25-30% in 2020, resulting in an online market of $88 Bn. Therefore, analysts expect that the online shopper penetration will increase by 20% in 2017. That can surely be a turning point for ecommerce in India.

The Upper Cut

At present, Alibaba has a sourcing business in India and does not sell anything directly to customers. It holds 40% stake in Paytm and 5% stake in Snapdeal. And if the Chinese ecommerce firm enters India in tie-ups with such ecommerce companies, the sector would see a battle between Amazon and the rest. Also, as we see that Alibaba has reportedly approached the Tata Group to venture into the online retail market, there is a big partnership awaited in the ecommerce segment.

“Alibaba is familiar with India. They are not late. They have their inherent strengths and a good backend. The only issue in the B2C segment for them is that whether consumers will see it as “China ka maal (product of China)”. That does not go well with the Indian consumer,” says Prof. Pradeep Pendse, Dean of e-business at Welingkar Institute of Management.

Also, as the news for Alibaba to enter the Indian retail market brims, it is being speculated that Paytm may spin off its marketplace business and allow Alibaba to organically expand in India.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of Paytm refutes any such development. In a call with Inc42, Vijay says, “We (at Paytm) are committed to growth and we are here not to sell.” He did not comment on Alibaba’s India entry.

Industry watchers also point out to a possible buyout of Flipkart by Alibaba.

“It is a bonanza for Flipkart. I feel Alibaba is going to buy out Flipkart. For, Alibaba to run on its own will be difficult and it has deep pockets to buy out a big player who is already well entrenched,” says Prof. Kaustubh Dhargalkar of Welingkar Institute of Management.

When Jack Ma visited India last year, he gave a clear indication that they would enter India’s online retail market by tying up with B2C players in the ecommerce segment. During the same time, the Chinese ecommerce giant reportedly entered into a strategic tie-up with Paytm, enabling cross-platform business.

However, if Alibaba plans to enter India on its own, like Amazon, then we are bound to see a fierce battle amongst domestic players like Flipkart, Snapdeal, Paytm and Shopclues fighting against the US and Chinese ecommerce biggies.

“This could be a bluff. If they threaten that they will come alone, they may be able to buy a big player out for a cheaper deal,” says an industry insider who requested anonymity.

It should be noted here that currently India does not allow FDI in B2C ecommerce segment while it allows 100% FDI in B2B ecommerce portals, 51% FDI in multi-brand B2B segment and 100% FDI in single brand retail.

Does It Mean That Alibaba Will Leverage Its B2B Business To Establish Its Presence In The B2C Ecommerce?

On the other side, Alibaba has its own wallet, Alipay, and its own logistics unit, Aliexpress, which gives it an edge to establish itself on its own similar. This would mean that Alibaba will operate as Amazon works in India operating on an online marketplace model, which even has no FDI restrictions.

“They have their own people, payment gateway, and most importantly their B2B business. The current ecommerce players are highly priced. So, they can come on their own, too,” says Arvind Singhal, Chairman and Managing Director of Technopak, a consultancy firm.

A Ringside View

Flipkart has raised $1.7 Bn capital to date and looks to speed up its funding in order to dodge its competitors. Flipkart was valued at $15 Bn after it raised $700 Mn in 2015. But, in February 2016, Morgan Stanley marked down the value of Flipkart’s shares by 27%, bringing down the company’s valuation to around $11 Bn.

While Snapdeal has raised about $1.54 Bn and is valued at somewhere between $6.5-$7 Bn after it raised about $200 Mn in February 2016.

On the other side, Alibaba is well funded with over $7.9 Bn to manage its entire business. In 2014, Alibaba raised $21.8 Bn, which was the biggest US IPO ever, which puts the company in a stronger position to take on its rivals in the country.

continued next post

[GeneChing]

Who Dares, Wins

Seeing Amazon steadily overtaking the ecommerce market in India, Amazon will be a strong contender in the ecommerce run. When Amazon entered the Indian market in 2014 under a marketplace model, it had expected good sales from the beginning. But, it took Amazon almost two years to assess the Indian market, and now it has managed to be one among the top players. It has invested about $300 Mn (INR 1,980 Cr.) and $190 Mn (INR 1,237 Cr.), in Amazon Seller Services, in February 2016 and October 2015 respectively to have a strong seller base in order to cater to a wider network of consumers. It has further committed $2 Bn investment making India its largest market outside the US.

The company had even planned for a $5 Bn (INR 31,700 Cr) warchest for India. It is also in the race to digital wallet services. It is said to have applied for a semi-closed wallet license with the RBI.

It this is not enough to measure Amazon’s increasing strength in the country then we can also note that Amazon has not been raising any funds to survive, unlike its counterparts.

But What About The Indian Govt And Its Policies?

“Alibaba will have a hell to pay for if they try to come alone. If you remember the Huawei – Airtel issue, it will be tough for a Chinese player to operate in the country on its own.There are data and privacy issues involved,” says Vivek Srinivasan, co- founder of Prudence Advisors.

Talking about Flipkart and Snapdeal, who are still not ready for a public listing, are in desperate need of funds. Flipkart borrowed $67 Mn (INR 450 Cr) from HDFC Bank in lieu of not able to raised funds soon. It was valued at $15 Bn after it raised $700 Mn in 2015. But, in February 2016, Morgan Stanley marked down the value of Flipkart’s shares by 27%, bringing down the company’s valuation to around $11 Bn. While, Snapdeal, which has raised about $1.54 Bn till date, is valued between $6.5-$7 Bn, after it raising about $200 Mn in February 2016.

However, the three of them are not yet profitable in the Indian terrain. Snapdeal has reported a loss of INR 1,328 Cr., Flipkart reported a loss of about INR 2,000 Cr and Amazon India reported a total loss of INR 31.7 Cr., in FY 14-15.

eBay, on the other hand, is the oldest player in India in which entered India in 2004. But it has not managed to establish itself as a strong player.

If these existing players are compared to Alibaba, only Amazon seems to be a tough competitor. Alibaba is well stuffed with over $7.9 Bn fund to manage its entire business. In 2014, Alibaba raised $21.8 Bn, which was the biggest US IPO ever, which puts the company in a stronger position to take on its rivals in the country.

The time may be right. The market is well equipped and Alibaba will have the ‘second mover advantage.’ But, there will be stiff competition from its US rival Amazon. M&A options are wide open for Alibaba if it needs a little help from Jack Ma’s Indian friends- Snapdeal or Paytm. The coming days will see Indian market playing out to be a battleground for Amazon and Alibaba. Well, if Jack has to win-it-all, he should better have a few tricks up his sleeve.

[With inputs from Dearton Hector Thomas]

Now that TaijiZen is defunct, perhaps I should split the Jack Ma posts off into their own indie thread...

[GeneChing]

Most of the posts above were poached from the Jet Li's TaijiZen International Cultural Development Company thread

China's Alibaba Pictures Launches $300M Investment Fund
7:09 AM PDT 7/25/2016 by Patrick Brzeski


AP Images/Invision

Jack Ma's fledgling film studio has invested in several high-profile Hollywood projects, including 'Star Trek Beyond' and 'Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation.'
Alibaba Pictures Group has unveiled a new $300 million investment fund targeting the entertainment industry.

Alibaba Pictures, the film studio unit of Jack Ma's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, is partnering with Wuhu Gopher Asset Management on the fund, which will be called the Hainan Alibaba Pictures Entertainment Industry Investment Fund.

In a statement released Monday, the two partners said they would make "investments in companies along the value chain of the movie and television entertainment industry, creating synergies with Alibaba Pictures’ own capital."

Alibaba Pictures will contribute a maximum of $75 million to the fund, with the remaining $225 million coming from Wuhu Gopher. The partners said the fund will focus on investment opportunities in high-quality film and TV companies falling under four key categories: "production development, celebrity resources, marketing and distribution and advanced technology." The partners did not specify whether the fund would exclusively target Chinese investments, or if international films and firms might be on its hit list.

“In recent years, the Chinese entertainment industry, which has mainly been driven by movies, has undergone rapid development," said Zhang Qiang, CEO of Alibaba Pictures. "Bountiful investment opportunities and immense room for integration have emerged both upstream and downstream of the industry value chain.”

Alibaba Pictures, which is listed on both the Singapore and Hong Kong stock exchanges, describes its core business segments as content production, Internet-based promotion and distribution, entertainment e-commerce and international operations. The studio has yet to release a film of its own, but it has three Chinese projects in varying stages of production: Ferry Man, Three Lives Three Worlds Ten Miles of Peach Blossom and Ao Jiao Yu Pian Jian.

It has also invested in high-profile Hollywood projects, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, Star Trek Beyond and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. Alibaba Pictures is also moving into U.S.-China co-productions with a partnership with Skydance Media to finance and co-produce the WWII film Flying Tigers, which will be scripted by Braveheart writer Randall Wallace.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows
Star Trek Beyond
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
Flying Tigers

[GeneChing]

...who'd a thunk the the Chicoms plan for world domination was going to be through movie theaters?

Alibaba Pictures to Build Its Own Cinemas
Patrick Frater
Asia Bureau Chief


COURTESY OF ALIBABA
AUGUST 18, 2016 | 04:45AM PT

Alibaba Pictures Group is planning a move into the construction and operation of cinemas in China.

The company is the movies arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and has its own share listings in Hong Kong and Singapore.

“APG has set up a team in charge of this (cinema) business and the team is already operational,” an Alibaba Pictures spokesman told Variety by email.

Local media reports have pointed to a construction project in the giant inland city of Chongqing as one of APG’s first sites.

In May this year APG agreed to invest $154 million in the convertible bonds of Dadi Cinema Construction, one of China’s top three circuits. But aside from the Dadi investment, APG is currently more focused as a technology-driven film financier, distributor and marketing player.

The downstream move into exhibition comes at a time when box office growth in China has suddenly slowed and cinemas suffered three successive months of lower sales. But this and other huge bets such as Wanda Cinema Line’s recent commitment to buy 150 additional IMAX screens, suggest that Chinese companies are confident that the theatrical business will recover its poise.

Many more cinemas are coming on stream. At the end of 2015 China had 31,600 cinema screens in operation. By the end of this year the total is expected to be close to 40,000, putting it roughly on a par with the North American screen count – albeit with a population more than four times as large.

At the time of the Dadi deal APG CEO Zhang Qiang said: “Cinemas will play an integral part in Alibaba Pictures’ operations, as the company aims to build an integrated entertainment platform for the film industry. It will not only serve as an important consumption context within the entertainment industry, but also become a core application of internet in the film industry.”

Last month APG said that it was setting up a $300 million (RMB2 billion) investment fund in partnership with Gopher Asset Management. Some of the capital from the new fund could conceivably flow into APG’s cinema unit. The fund’s purposes were spelled out only vaguely: “The investment fund will invest in companies along the value chain of the movie and TV entertainment industry,” APG said in a filing.

[GeneChing]

I can't even wrap my head around this. Has there ever been an Asian host for SNL?

Alibaba's Youku to Produce Chinese Version of 'Saturday Night Live'
1:35 AM PDT 4/26/2017 by Patrick Brzeski


Will Heath/NBC
'Saturday Night Live'

But don't expect the Middle Kingdom's answer to Alec Baldwin to be lampooning Chinese president Xi Jinping anytime soon.
"Live from Beijing, it's Saturday night!"

NBCUniversal on Wednesday unveiled a partnership with Chinese streaming video platform Youku, a unit of Alibaba Digital Media & Entertainment Group, which will produce a local version in China of NBC's iconic sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live.

Youku, one of China's leading streaming video services along with Tencent Video and Baidu's iQiyi service, is planning to make SNL its flagship entertainment show for the 2017 fall/winter schedule.

Over the past few years, NBCUniversal has licensed nine other international versions of SNL, in territories ranging from France to the Middle East.

"We're excited to partner with Youku in China, where we are confident SNL will be a big hit with audiences," said Michael Edelstein, president of NBCUniversal International Studios.

Now in its 43rd season, Lorne Michaels' original New York version of Saturday Night Live is enjoying a banner year, with each episode attracting an average of 11 million viewers and U.S. viewership up 29 percent over last year — so far, it's been the show’s best season since 1993-1994.

Much of the ratings comeback probably can be attributed to the presidency of Donald Trump and Alec Baldwin's lampooning of the commander-in-chief, as well as Melissa McCarthy's recurring impersonations of White House press secretary Sean Spicer.

But given China's strong censorship system, it is unlikely that the Youku version of the show will feature a Chinese comedian taking similar shots at Chinese president Xi Jinping anytime soon. Youku and NBCUniversal say the Beijing-based remake will "showcase the best of Chinese culture and comedy."

[GeneChing]

At that rate, no wonder he is one of the world's richest.

Jack Ma teaches tai chi to entrepreneurs for $15,000
Published time: 24 May, 2017 10:21
has launched tai chi philosophy courses for entrepreneurs, reports The Straits Times citing Chinese media.
Alibaba founder teaches six classes over three days a year with the course reportedly costing 100,000 yuan ($14.500).

Ma, a former English teacher has been a long-time fan of martial arts. The billionaire has reportedly been practicing tai chi quan since 1988.

Earlier this month, Jack Ma joined the debate on a defeat of a tai chi master by a mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter.

The two styles cannot be compared as they operate by different rules, according to the billionaire. Ma stressed that most tai chi practitioners perform the art for exercise, not for real combat.

“Tai chi was invented neither for attack nor defense, but as a movement to illustrate its philosophy. Attack and defense are part of tai chi, but definitely not all of it,” Ma wrote on his account on Sina Weibo, a Chinese microblogging website.

In 2013, Alibaba CEO in cooperation with a Chinese actor Jet Li launched Taiji Zen Online Academy to promote the martial art and associated meditation techniques.

Jack Ma says that tai chi and tai chi quan are different, as the former represents a philosophy and the latter is the martial art itself.

“Tai chi is about how you balance and how you work,” he previously said in an interview with Bloomberg.

“Tai chi is like 'you fight there and I'll go over here. You're at the top, and I'll go down'. It's a balance. You are heavy and I'm small. When I'm small, I can jump. You're heavy. You cannot jump. Tai chi is about a philosophy. I use tai chi philosophy in the business. Calm down. There's always a way out and keep yourself balanced,” Ma said.

[GeneChing]

Alibaba's Jack Ma Gets $2.8 Billion Richer in One Day
by Lulu Yilun Chen
June 8, 2017, 6:11 PM PDT June 9, 2017, 2:26 AM PDT
Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma gains on bullish sales outlook
Resultant share rally makes him the world’s 14th wealthiest


Jack Ma. Photographer: Andrey Rudakov /Bloomberg

Jack Ma’s net worth surged $2.8 billion overnight as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. forecast sales growth that topped every analyst’s estimate, despite China’s decelerating economy.

Ma, 52, is now the richest person in Asia and 14th wealthiest in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His net worth has climbed $8.5 billion this year to $41.8 billion.

The latest surge came after China’s largest e-commerce company forecast 45 to 49 percent revenue growth in the year ending March, demonstrating how investments beyond online shopping are paying off. Shares in Alibaba, where Ma is chairman, rose 13 percent to a record high.



Alibaba and Tencent Holdings Ltd. -- which dominate online shopping and social media, respectively -- have ventured deeper into new areas from cloud computing services to streaming music and video as the country’s economy slows. Alibaba is capturing more digital advertising spending by incorporating social elements such as video in its shopping sites.

Alibaba Adds $42 Billion in Market Cap on Strong Sales Forecast

Alibaba is holding meetings with investors this week. On Friday, the former English teacher said he wasn’t going to discuss corporate forecasts. He took the stage instead to describe how his company had become effectively the world’s 22nd largest economy -- just after Argentina --- in terms of transactions by never fearing to think big. Ma, who said Alibaba revises 10-year plans annually, foresaw the company becoming the fifth-largest eventually by 2036 by serving a burgeoning Chinese middle classes, taking advantage of global trade and making use of its valuable trove of data.

Ma’s comments about the evolution of data-driven technology echoed Masayoshi Son, Chairman of Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. SoftBank -- Alibaba’s largest shareholder -- has invested billions in companies such as ARM Holdings Plc with the intention of staking out a leading position in the future Internet of Things.

“The Internet of Things is gonna be big because in the past, machines drink electricity,” Ma told investors. “In the next 20 years, machines will drink data.”

“In the future, no company, no country, no business can survive without data.”

Now all he needs to do is sponsor Kung Fu Tai Chi. Come on Jack. Do it for Tai Chi. You love Tai Chi.

[GeneChing]

China's Alibaba Pictures Pacts With 'Wolf Warrior II' Production Company
3:02 AM PDT 8/28/2017 by Patrick Brzeski


Alibaba Pictures Group
Alibaba Pictures CEO Fan Luyuan

Jack Ma's film studio says it will work closely with Beijing Culture on film financing, marketing and distribution after the studio's latest release pulled in more than $800 million.

Jack Ma's Alibaba Pictures Group has formed a strategic partnership with Beijing Culture, one of the production companies behind Wolf Warrior II, China's biggest blockbuster of all time.

The partnership was unveiled at a press conference in central Beijing on Friday. The two companies said they would cooperate in areas spanning film financing, promotion and distribution, along with movie merchandising.

Fan Luyuan, Alibaba Pictures' newly appointed CEO, pointed to the partners' recent collaboration on Wolf Warriors II as an example of the scale of success that's possible when Chinese stakeholders work together to get the formula right — while also leveraging the internet prowess of tech giants like Alibaba.

"We want to be part of the infrastructure of China’s movie industry,” Fan said.

Written by, directed by and starring Chinese martial artist Wu Jing, Wolf Warrior II has earned a colossal $810 million in China since its release on July 26. Fan said some 40 percent of all Wolf Warrior II ticket sales were transacted over Alibaba's Taopiaopiao mobile ticketing platform. The service also was used to drive marketing and merchandising offers to filmgoers.

Beijing Culture has been amassing a powerful collection of partners. In April 2016, the company signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Anthem and Song, the Chinese studio venture set up by Joe and Anthony Russo, the Hollywood directors of Marvel's Captain America franchise. That tie-up proved especially fruitful for Wolf Warrior II, on which the Russos consulted and provided their usual stunt team, led by veteran stunt coordinator Sam Hargrave (The Avengers, Suicide Squad, The Hunger Games), elevating its action to a Hollywood standard. The Russos also introduced the film's villain, Frank Grillo, to their Chinese partners.

"For China's film industry infrastructure to be improved, we need to work together," said Alibaba's Fan.

Beijing Culture produces and distributes films, television and internet series, as well as runs a talent agency. The studio's next release will be Feng Xiaogang's period drama Youth, written by popular Chinese novelist Yan Geling, out in China on Sept. 30.

I doubt Youth will do as well. But then again, I had no idea Wolf Warriors 2 would do well.

Alibaba & Wolf Warrior 2

[GeneChing]

...but he should stick to Tai Chi.

There's a vid of him dancing if you follow the link.

Jack Ma, one of China's richest men, danced on stage to Michael Jackson in front of thousands of employees at a company party
Alexandra Ma

Yes, that is a billionaire executive dressed in black and gold, thrusting his hips to the sound of Michael Jackson music on stage in front of thousands of his employees.

Jack Ma, the founder and executive chairman of e-commerce company Alibaba, delivered a choreographed performance — complete with backup dancers — at his company's 18th annual celebration in Hangzhou, China last Friday.

Chinese financial news site Yicai Global tweeted a video of the performance on Monday, which can be seen above. Ma dances to a medley featuring clips from "Billie Jean" and "Dangerous."


Ma after taking off his mask. Yicai Global/Twitter

Some 40,000 Alibaba employees from various countries attended the lavish event, which consisted of multiple parades and musical performances, China Daily reported.

The video appears to have been filmed at the gymnasium of the Yellow Dragon Stadium in Hangzhou, which has a capacity of 8,000. From the footage, the venue looks about half full.

Ma has much to celebrate: Alibaba's market cap recently passed the $400 million mark — gradually closing its gap with Amazon — and its shares have almost doubled in value since the beginning of this year, Quartz reported.

The company also announced plans to open its first brick-and-mortar mall in Hangzhou next April, echoing what Amazon did in New York last May.


Ma speaks to his employees in Hangzhou, China. Wang He/Getty

This isn't the first time Ma has entertained his staff.

At Alibaba's 10th anniversary in 2009, for example, Ma — then company CEO — dressed as a punk, donned a white wig, and performed a segment from "The Lion King" (watch the linked video from 1:07 onward). He also took part in a mass wedding for his employees in 2014.

Such performances by powerful Chinese executives may be more common than we think. In 2016, Wang Jianlin, the CEO of real estate conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group, has sung solo on stage at his company's annual meeting multiple times.

Ma is currently the second-richest man in China and 23rd richest man in the world, with a net worth of $28.3 billion (£21.3 billion), according to Forbes. Wang is currently the richest man in China.

[GeneChing]

Crazy statistics from China’s biggest shopping day of the year
Jack Ma, Chairman of Alibaba Group, attends a show during Alibaba Group's 11.11 Singles' Day global shopping festival in Shanghai, China, November 10, 2017.


Fired up. (Reuters/Aly Song)

WRITTEN BY Josh Horwitz
November 11, 2017

Singles Day, Alibaba’s annual day-long online shopping bonanza in which the e-commerce giant offers heavy discounts on a wide range of products, just came to an end.
On the evening prior, a number of international stars made appearances at a countdown gala Alibaba held in Shanghai. Football star Luís Figo got shots blocked onstage, Pharrell performed alongside Chinese singers Kris Wu, Karen Mok, and pianist Lang Lang, and Nicole Kidman introduced Jack Ma’s upcoming martial arts film Gong Shou Dao.

View image on Twitter

Maria Sharapova ✔@MariaSharapova
An honor meeting Jack Ma at @AlibabaGroup #Double11 event today. Thank you for inviting me back to Shanghai! 🇨🇳
12:26 AM - Nov 10, 2017
137 137 Replies 441 441 Retweets 3,691 3,691 likes
Twitter Ads info and privacy

At midnight local time on November 11, the shopping commenced. Unsurprisingly, sales figures were enormous.
Citigroup predicted that Singles Day would drive $24 billion in purchases across Taobao, Tmall, and and other e-commerce properties. In fact, Alibaba exceeded expectations by a small margin. Over the 24-hour period, consumers bought 168.3 billion yuan ($25.4 billion) in goods from Alibaba.

At one point over the 24-hour period Alipay, the payment service run by Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial, was processing a record 256,000 payment transactions—more than double from last year’s peak

Alibaba surpassed last year’s final purchase figure of $17.8 billlion at 1:09 PM local time, 13 hours after the festival began.

China’s State Post Bureau estimates (link in Chinese) that over 1 billion packages will be delivered across China between Nov. 11 and Nov. 16, as consumers wait to receive their orders. That will amount to roughly the number of packages delivered across China throughout the entire year 2006.

Alibaba kills it for Single Day.

[GeneChing]

OPEN SESAME
On the Alibaba campus, ambition and humility are both on display


Bride and groom at a mass "wedding" on Alibaba Day. (Alibaba)

WRITTEN BY Josh Horwitz
December 19, 2017

A campus can reveal a lot about a company’s culture. Google is famous for its outlandish office spaces, which contain egg pods and caverns, capturing its founders’ quirky personalities. Amazon is known for its door desks, symbols of founder Jeff Bezos’ frugality (even though they were more expensive than actual desks).

If there’s one Chinese company that can rival those foreign ones in visibility worldwide, it’s the e-commerce giant Alibaba, one of the world’s most highly-valued companies. Founder Jack Ma regularly appears at overseas events, where he captivates audiences with stories about his pre-Alibaba days when his resume was so weak he couldn’t even get a job at KFC. The company’s Singles Day shopping event is well-known enough worldwide to get American celebrities to come promote it. Every now and then Ma breaks into dance at a company event.

Like Amazon, its US-based counterpart, it’s moving beyond online commerce and into offline retail, cloud computing, and consumer finance. It’s also expanding internationally, opening up R&D centers in Singapore, Israel, and the US.

Very little of Ma’s flamboyance and ambition comes across at Alibaba’s headquarters in Hangzhou’s Xixi district (about 180 km from Shanghai). At first glance, it looks like an ordinary office park. If anything stands out in particular, it’s the presence of two contrasting motifs in the central courtyard—the influence of classic Chinese literary and art forms, and a towering series of human sculptures.

Visually, the aesthetics of the two themes don’t appear to match. But they each capture a specific part of how Alibaba sees itself, and the challenges that lie ahead for the company.

Band of outsiders

Markings of imperial China dot the 260,000 square meter campus. Conference rooms have names like “Green Branch Peak” and “Banana Plains,” references to the Qing dynasty novel Dream of the Red Chamber (the 18th century work is considered one of China’s greatest literary achievements and has been compared to Gone with the Wind and War and Peace). The center of campus contains a walled garden inspired by the Jiangnan style of local architecture associated with Zhejiang province and other areas in eastern China along the Yangtze river. It’s open only to Jack Ma—his office is there—and other top executives, who use it as a meeting spot for guests such as Justin Trudeau, who visited in late 2016.


Jack Ma with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau at a walled garden on Alibaba’s campus. (Alibaba)


A statue of Shou Xin Gong, the god of longevity in Chinese mythology. (Quartz)

Chinese martial arts in particular is a common motif on Alibaba’s campus. Cartoon depictions of warriors are spread throughout hallways, meeting spaces, and even the parking lot.

Jack Ma’s fondness for martial arts stems in part from his admiration of the work of Jin Yong, a Hong Kong-based writer who published a series of adventure novels revolving around heroes and combat scenes. While published during the 20th century, the books are usually set in medieval Chinese history and draw on a long tradition of China’s wuxia, or martial arts-related fiction. He’s incorporated much of the literature into Alibaba’s internal culture.

The company’s values, for example, are dubbed the “Six Vein Spirit Sword,” which Ma borrowed from Jin Yong’s novel Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, whose characters are inspired by Buddhist philosophy. At Alibaba, each “vein” of the sword (which is not an actual sword in the novel) represents a company value—customer first, teamwork, embrace change, integrity, passion and, commitment. Employees are rated on their performance in part based on how well they fulfill each of these values.

All employees at Alibaba choose a nickname for themselves. Originally, Alibaba staff drew from characters in Jin Yong’s martial arts novels. Jack Ma’s nickname, for example, is Feng Qingyang, named after an elderly swordsman from the Jin Yong book The Smiling, Proud Wanderer. Nowadays, staff can take their nicknames from other inspiring characters too—Marvel superheroes and Korean dramas are popular, one employee told Quartz. These are used in all professional contexts—emails, group meetings, even performance reviews.

Brian Wong, Alibaba’s vice president of global initiatives and an employee since 1999, says Alibaba uses the nicknames, and the broader martial arts motif, to inspire staff to think of themselves as outsiders fighting for a cause.

Much of Alibaba’s past and present has hinged on it taking on established, powerful rivals. In the previous decade, while competing hard against eBay in China, the company steadfastly refused to charge vendors fees to list on its site. Investors quivered, but Chinese merchants embraced the policy, helping Alibaba to drive one of Silicon Valley’s largest companies out of the country. Nowadays, with its Ant Financial finance affiliate, the company is taking on a larger rival—state-owned Chinese banks, which Ma argues don’t adequately serve the Chinese consumer.

Jin Yong’s characters, Wong says, are like “a brotherhood, like a band of brothers, it’s a group of people that are fighting for values of righteousness, loyalty.”

“Often times they are sort of a peripheral group, they are not the mainstream. They have been shaped by things in their life they think are not fair or not right,” he adds.

continued next post

[GeneChing]

Humble touches

Alibaba’s courtyard also contains a series of sculptures that the company commissioned from contemporary Chinese artist Wang Wei. They depict giant, stern human figures in states of distress.


The three figures depict “spirit and confidence in the face of difficulties, be strong but always be humble as well.” (Quartz/Captions quote from statue descriptions provided by Alibaba)


A statue of a man burdened by a turtle shell on his back shows “he has pressure in life. We think at night, ‘What you have done today and what are you going to do tomorrow?'” (Quartz)


A statue that depicts rowers stuck on rock because they’re rowing in opposite directions is meant to encourage employees to “work hard for the same target, in the same direction.” (Quartz)

These statues represent another facet of Alibaba’s campus and corporate culture—humility.

Despite being valued at nearly $450 billion, Alibaba’s offices aren’t lavish. A typical office floor consists of a series of desks and some ordinary cubicles. For amenities, there are massage chairs, and the odd foosball or ping pong table.


(Alibaba)


(Alibaba)


(Alibaba)

Wong says the lack of glamor at one of the world’s most highly valued companies helps preserve a culture of modesty among staff. Even at its size, the company faces stiff competition from e-commerce rival JD.com, as well as social media giant Tencent, which has made inroads in online shopping with its popular WeChat messaging app. With over 50,000 employees, the company has to ensure staff doesn’t become complacent.

“One thing we’ve talked a lot about now at Alibaba is maintaining a sense of humility. The company has lots of influence on the economy and business in China, and extending into the world. But that’s a privilege and a responsibility,” Wong says. “If you start to give all the employees all these things that make them feel entitled, then they’re going to treat customers in a way that’s much different.”

City and state

Alibaba’s Xixi campus is just one of several it has in China. A smaller campus in Binjiang, 40 minutes by car from the Xixi headquarters, holds offices for employees that work for Alibaba.com, the company’s business-to-business e-commerce site, as well as AliExpress, its global-facing e-commerce site. Cainiao, Alibaba’s logistics arm, and Ant Financial each have separate offices in Hangzhou.

Alibaba has transformed the city. It was once primarily a destination for tourists heading to West Lake, a UNESCO heritage site. Now it’s a startup hub that vies with Shenzhen and Beijing for influence in China’s tech industry. Many Alibaba alumni have founded large companies that are based in the city, including Mobujie, a fashion social network valued at over $1 billion (paywall), and Beibei, a shopping site for mothers (paywall).

Like many Chinese tech giants, Alibaba’s relationship with the government is close but complicated. Ma’s philosophy is to be “in love with the government [but] don’t marry them.” Recently though, as the company has grown more influential, the government has increasingly relied on it for its own purposes. Last year Alibaba company partnered with the Hangzhou government to monitor traffic data across the city. It also is working with the city’s housing bureau to develop an online marketplace for house rentals, powered by Ant Financial’s controversial social credit scoring system. There’s even a spot on Alibaba’s Xixi campus that serves as a “designated meeting space where law-enforcement staff visit occasionally” to help with “established criminal cases,” a representative told the Wall Street Journal (paywall).

Scale and chaos

There are a few times each year when the sheer scale of Alibaba comes to life, sometimes chaotically. One is Alibaba Day, which takes place every May 10. Employees’ families are invited to campus to partake in various activities, including a “wedding” for newlywed couples, often officiated by Jack Ma himself. Wong says that the weddings are a symbol of valuing employees as family—at times, literally. Back in 2003, during China’s SARS epidemics, employees ran the business from their homes, often enlisting their parents or grandparents for help. The weddings, Wong says, are “the company’s way of saying thank you to the families.”


(Alibaba) (Alibaba)

Later in the year, as the company prepares for its annual Singles Day shopping bonanza in November, the campus fills with signs and posters promoting the event, and eventually, tents for employees working long hours.


(Alibaba) (Alibaba)


(Alibaba) (Alibab)

Wong, a Palo Alto, Calif. native, says that Alibaba’s campus might seem modest by the standards of Silicon Valley, where Apple recently unveiled its spaceship-like new digs. “If you’re comparing it to Google or Facebook, you’re not going to think this is impressive. But if you’re comparing it to other Chinese companies, it’s a pretty darn good campus,” he says.

Ultimately, like its more elaborate counterparts in other parts of the world, he says, it’s designed to inspire employees in its own way: “This is a similar approach, but with Chinese characteristics.”

This is why this has been a relevant thread here for so long. I'm moving it to the main forum now. Jack Ma could single-handedly revitalize Kung Fu, although I'm not confident GSD is the way to go (the way to go is to fund our publications for the next few years ).

[GeneChing]

...China!

FEBRUARY 25, 2019 9:08PM PT
U.S. Drama ‘Green Book’ Touted as Oscar Win for China
By PATRICK FRATER and BECKY DAVIS


CREDIT: PATTI PERRET

Chinese companies have been quick to claim their share of Oscar glory since Sunday’s ceremony, despite an awards season that largely shut out films from or about Asia, including “Crazy Rich Asians” and “Shoplifters.”

Alibaba Pictures, the heavily loss-making film financing and production arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, is busily talking up its involvement in best picture winner “Green Book.” The production company boarded the movie as an investor alongside Participant Media, Dreamworks Pictures and Amblin Partners (of which Alibaba is a minority owner) last summer. The film was nominated for five Oscars and won three Sunday, including best original screenplay and best actor in a supporting role. It will hit Chinese theaters on Friday.

“Even though Alibaba Pictures is a relatively new entrant into Hollywood, we have a track record of choosing quality projects that not only have high entertainment value, but also have positive messages we believe in,” said Zhang Wei, president of Alibaba Pictures. The company also made investments in two other awards contenders, “Capernaum” and “On the Basis of Sex.”

Another Chinese player, Perfect World Entertainment, which has interests stretching from games to movies, claimed its share of reflected glory with “BlacKkKlansman” (six nominations, including one win in the adapted screenplay category) and “First Man” (four nominations, including one win for best visual effects). Both were co-funded by Perfect World through its five-year finance deal with Universal Pictures.

China’s propaganda apparatus has gone a step further, including several Oscar winners that have Chinese involvement of some kind as examples of Chinese excellence. On Monday, China’s state-owned news agency Xinhua pronounced Pixar-produced “Bao” a Chinese-centric Oscars triumph.

“The short is written and directed by Chinese-born Canadian director Domee Shi,” who, Xinhua helpfully explained, “is the first woman and first Chinese writer and director of a Pixar short.” The news agency noted that “Bao” beat “One Small Step,” a “Chinese-American short film, directed by Zhang Shaofu…[which] tells the story of a young Chinese-American protagonist who dreams of being an astronaut.” In the documentary category, Xinhua claimed Chinese success through winner “Free Solo,” directed by Jimmy Chin and Elisabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, and through nominee “Minding the Gap,” directed by Chinese-American Liu Bing.

While there is much celebration on Chinese social media that “Bao” – a touching, realistic story about Chinese food and family – won such a high-profile accolade, several nationalistic state media reports champion a narrative that the wins, despite originating in other countries, are wins for China itself. The reports play up an old but recently much more prominent idea that people with Chinese heritage all over the world are connected to China by their ethnic identity. “Each of them is connected to China in its own way,” said Xinhua.

“It is a remarkable success given [U.S. President] Trump’s relentless China bashing,” said another commentator.

Beyond the rhetoric, however, there is increasing industrial synchronization between Hollywood and China. “The 91st Academy Awards can be viewed as the starting point for a new period of growing influence for China in the international film industry,” said Xinhua. The assertion is only inaccurate in that the movement quietly started several years ago.

The current dynamics are subtly different from those made in the 2012-2016 period, when Chinese companies were making aggressive and highly visible moves at the corporate level, like Alibaba and Wanda’s serious discussions about buying a piece of Sony Pictures Entertainment. Wanda bought Legendary Entertainment and unsuccessfully bid $1 billion for Dick Clark Productions. Video platform Le Vision/Le Eco made lavish slate announcements in Hollywood as recently as 2016, before gravity and Chinese regulators dragged them back to reality.

However, what has replaced that five-year surge of Chinese mad money has been a quieter drive to invest, learn, and integrate China into Hollywood. The initiative has been conducted by a smaller number of companies – Alibaba Pictures, Tencent, and Perfect World – which each have long-term game plans and have quietly opened offices in L.A.

Perfect World’s deal with Universal is largely a passive investment, but the company is simultaneously behaving like a Hollywood indie and developing its own material and scripts. (In China, Perfect World is further partnered with Hollywood names Village Roadshow and WME in Perfect Village Entertainment, a local production venture.)

“Both luck and persistence are very important. Alibaba Pictures will do everything in its power to support every young director to go global and vie for the Oscars,” said chairman and CEO of Alibaba Pictures Fan Luyan.

THREADS
The Academy Awards
Bao
Alibaba
Chollywood rising

[GeneChing]

Is India investigating any US tech giants too? Just curious.

Jul 27, 2020 12:11am PT
India Court Probes Alibaba Over Censorship, Fake News
By Patrick Frater


Courtesy of alibaba group

An Indian court has asked Chinese tech giant Alibaba, and its co-founder Jack Ma, to present evidence about the operation of its news operations. The request stems from a personnel case in which a former employee claims he was unfairly dismissed for refusing to censor content carried by Alibaba apps.

The case, reported first by the Reuters news agency, is brought by Pushpandra Singh Parmar and is being heard by Judge Sonia Sheokand at a District Court in Gurugram, near Delhi. Although not directly connected to recent government actions, the case may shed light on the activity of Chinese tech firms in India.

Last month, the Indian government banned 58 Chinese-owned apps, including the highly popular TikTok in response to a deadly border clash between the two neighbors. Indian authorities said there were “credible inputs” suggesting that the apps undermined national security.

Alibaba and Ma have been given 30 days to respond, either in person or through their lawyers. Ma is no longer a front-line executive at Alibaba, having retired as executive chairman in 2018. However, he remains a company director, is one of 36 members of the company’s controlling partnership structure, and is one of its largest single shareholders.

Through its Alibaba Pictures unit, Alibaba operates UC Web, a browser specially designed for use on mobile devices, and UC News, which serves news to those mobile users. The UC browser has been downloaded more than 689 million times in India, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower, quoted by Reuters, and UC News upwards of 79 million times.

The Alibaba-owned South China Morning Post cites a different analysis firm StatCounter. It says UC Browser has more than 430 million active users globally, of which 130 million are in India. It says that makes it the second most used mobile browser in India with a 10% market share, after Google Chrome.

In some 200 pages of documents, submitted as evidence Parmar says UC news both censored news that could be detrimental to China and also created fake news.

“In order to control any news related content to be published against China was automatically/manually rejected by an audit system evolved for this purpose,” his filing said. It used key word search such as “Sino-India war” and “China-India border” as a away of removing inconvenient stories.

According to Parmar, fake Hindi-language news stories included one in 2017 about the banning of 2,000-rupee banknotes, and another in 2018 about the outbreak of war between India and Pakistan.

“UC has been unwavering in its commitment to the India market and the welfare of its local employees, and its policies are in compliance with local laws. We are unable to comment on ongoing litigation,” a UC India spokesman told Variety in an emailed statement.