Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) Executive Chairman Jack Ma tells FOX Business Network’s (FBN) Jo Ling Kent about the Chinese government, their historic IPO, and where he’ll invest his funds. Ma said, “government is a very important part of the ecosystem” and that “you have to work with the government. Everywhere, not only China government, every government” in order to build a business.
Alibaba’s Jack Ma: We are here to help business not compete
Jack Ma on his excitement today for the IPO:
“I feel excited and honored and I also feel very humbled; and very important that it’s a great blessing from the world and we are so excited by the trust we got today.”
Jack Ma on transparency issues with the Chinese government:
“I think the concern, I understand, when you read so many newspaper report about what’s happening in China; definitely. But if you really work there, if you stay there, live there and find out things aren’t too bad. As I said 15 years ago, a lot of people said ‘how can you survive in China?’ without having money; without having Government relationship and without that? We said we work from heart. We believe only way you trust people; only people trust you. Only the government trust you; only the customer trust you; shareholder trust you. Then can survive. I think a lot of things people worry about, we understand. They will see, we will prove it.”
Jack Ma on his interactions with the Chinese government:
“I listen to them carefully because this is a job as a business leader. If you really want their help, you have to work with the government. Everywhere, not only China government, every government…In the past 15 years, I took this as a great opportunity to talk to the government, listen to their worries, solve their problems. We have the same thing; create jobs, that’s what we want – and pump up the domestic demanding and this is all the things we want to do and government want to solve. It’s very important that so new to any government, so if you can tell them what you are doing and if you listen what they worry about; then you can find a way. This is why we do business.”
Jack Ma on working with the Chinese government to create jobs:
“Yes, of course. I tell them this is what I want. This is the dream I have. This is the dream I want to have a small business. This is the dream that 15-years ago when I started my business, nobody helped us. So today we can use technology that will help people. Why not join us together? And I think we’re building an ecosystem. And a government is a very important part of the ecosystem, especially in an emerging market in developing nations.”
Jack Ma on which American company he admires:
“Well, I think I admire a lot of American companies, they change the history, they reshape the world? Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and General Electric Company (NYSE:GE). and International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) and Google; I think they – even Facebook, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY), there are so many innovations. So I want to say, coming here you come to learn. You come to help the small businesses. I think a lot of small businesses in America, the farmer, the small business, they probably not well taken care of by the new technology; which we focused on that. So I think we can, coming here to help these guys, not to compete. I think the difference approaching our philosophy and traditional western business philosophy – my CFO, he graduated from Yale, my partner…he said: I been working with you for five years and we never talk about a competition, I say why we should talk about competition for what I see – it’s the opportunity. In this world there’s seven billion people and only half a billion people are using online, why you worry about a competition?
Jack Ma on whether there’s a specific vertical within Alibaba in which he’ll invest:
“I would not say which vertical. We have a lot of things that we are eyeing and doing things to expand our ecosystem because today it seems we are pretty big in China, but compare to tomorrow, compare to the world, we are still tiny. Because we want to last a hundred- two…We finished 15 years and there’s another 87 to go. The money, we want to say that we will only spend on the money to help the ecosystem. Because this ecosystem must help small business.”
Jack Ma on how he plans to spend his fortune after today’s IPO:
“I think it is changing me because a lot of people think – ah, Jack, you are rich person now…and I ask my wife 14 years ago: Do you want your husband to be a rich person, rich business people? Or a respected person? My wife said I want you to be a respected business person. I don’t want you to be rich. Maybe at that time she never thought I would be a rich person.”
Jack Ma on whether he’ll buy something with his new funds:
“No. I think I am so happy- the wonderful day of my life was I got a 200 dollars amount, and I think when you have 1 million dollars that’s your money, when you have 10 million dollars…problem because you worry about inflation, worry about that and things. When you have 1 billion dollars, that’s the trust from others – not your money. The money I got it’s the trust people of me. They think I can spend money better than most people.”
Jack Ma on whether he has concerns Chinese investors will flip the stock:
“No. I think every trust – trust takes time to build. We should have a patience. We have to prove by action instead of prove by words so that’s what we believe. China – 15 years, no one trust that we would survive, nobody trust that we would be here today, but we proved. And, very important…the credit system is so bad in China, that we are having more than 18 million transactions every day, that is 18 million trust doing every day. This is what we do here.”
