Review by New York Times Review
THE PERSONAL-COMPUTER AND Internet revolution that began in the late 20th century eventually took over most of the world, but its most prominent players - Amazon, Apple, eBay, Google, Microsoft - were distinctly American. In the 21st century, it is not impossible to imagine an Internet revolution beginning in China. That possibility is, as with so many aspects of China, a function of scale. Alibaba, the sprawling Chinese digital marketplace, is already by some measures larger than Amazon. Its payment tool Alipay alone accounts for one-third of the $2.5 trillion global online payments market. The dizzying rise of the company is a crucial part of China's ascension as a global economic power, and if you've never heard of the company, rest assured that you will. When the Alibaba founder Jack Ma appeared onstage last year at a summit in Manila with Barack Obama, Obama interviewed him. We often think of successful tech C.E.O.s climbing from the nerdy ranks of tinkering programmers, like Bill Gates, but as "Alibaba," Duncan Clark's engaging biography explains, Ma's humble origins gave no clue to his future - then again, in 1970s China, the very idea of a homegrown technology business executive was inconceivable. Born in 1964 to a photographer and a factory worker, Ma grew up a mediocre student in the city of Hangzhou. About the only thing that set Ma apart was learning English, which he would practice by speaking to tourists passing through his hometown. One of these tourists, a vacationing Australian Communist, became a generous benefactor who even helped buy a house for young Ma and his wife. After a stint teaching English, Ma began running a tiny translation business, focused on Chinese companies - beginning to flourish under Deng Xiaoping - seeking to do business with the West. During his first visit to the United States in the mid-90s, a friend in Seattle logged Ma onto the Internet, and it occurred to him that listing Chinese companies online might be a good idea. If you think early American web pioneers had a tough time persuading investors and consumers to embrace the scary new world of e-commerce, imagine the challenge Ma's start-up faced: Most of China had no Internet, so his early clients were handing him thousands of dollars to create web services they themselves could not see. "I was treated like a con man for three years," Ma said. Soon enough, though, his clients answered their phones to find curious Western customers on the line. In the late '90s, as the Chinese government began a delicate program of encouraging Internet growth without giving up state control, Ma's "China Pages" and several other Chinese start-ups began to attract the attention of outside investors. That money, some of which came from the Japanese billionaire Masayosha Son, was rocket fuel for what became Alibaba, which has a massive shipping-logistics arm on top of its e-commerce services. When Alibaba went public in 2014, the $25 billion it raised made it the largest I.P.O. in world history (the next two, incidentally, were Chinese state-controlled enterprises). Clark is a China-based investment adviser and onetime consultant to Alibaba; he notes that his failure to exercise stock options he was given as payment became a $30-million mistake. The access he got to the company pushes his breezy account more toward the business than to Ma's personality. Still, Ma emerges as an unpretentious, self-deprecating leader, fond of quoting martial arts novels and "Forrest Gump." Yet he is clearly also shrewd and extremely driven. And his company has acquired enough wealth to begin to reshape the Western business world; he has announced a Netflix-style video streaming service and now has a movie division that invests in Hollywood blockbusters. The Chinese government's control over the Internet may still make political dissent difficult, but Ma and some others have demonstrated that there are few limits to building world-beating companies.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [June 3, 2016]
Review by Library Journal Review
Alibaba became famous in the United States in 2014 when it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange and became the largest initial public offering (IPO) in history. In China, the company has radically changed the way people shop and even created a national shopping holiday that surpassed Black Friday in sales. This book concentrates on the unique character and ambition of founder Jack Ma, while simultaneously chronicling the development of Alibaba from an apartment where you "could count the number of cofounders...by the toothbrushes jammed into mugs on a shelf in the bathroom," to the multibillion dollar corporation that has transformed life in China. As an advisor to Alibaba in the early years, Clark (chairman, investment advisory firm BDA China) is qualified to provide riveting stories about Ma, including his becoming a Tai Chi master to his role in boardroom spats. The study will appeal to those interested in business, China, ecommerce, and readers who are curious about the vibrant personality behind one of the world's greatest success stories. VERDICT This absorbing and well-written portrayal of Ma's character, and his role in Alibaba's development will appeal to a wide range of readers. [See Prepub Alert, 10/19/15.]-Casey Watters, -Singapore -Management Univ. © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A study of the multibillion-dollar Chinese e-commerce conglomerate and its charismatic founder. Technology and financial expert Clark astutely profiles Jack Ma, the 51-year-old entrepreneur behind Alibaba, "the Amazon of China" that has become the world's largest online shopping mall. Having met Ma in 1999, the author recalls the former English lecturer's remarkably ambitious spirit and his intentions to overthrow the giants of Silicon Valley with the development of an unrivaled Internet-based business. Ma was backed by only a small handful of co-founders (his wife included), but the author pitched in and became an adviser to Alibaba in its infancy as it developed and gained a competitive edge through what Ma calls the "iron triangle" business plan: e-commerce, logistics, and finance, all of which Clark outlines in lucid detail. Further embellishing his portrait, the author also draws on his 20-year tenure living and working in China, and he shows the great impact of the multifaceted online experience on the country's financial and cultural climates. Clark cites the 2008 global financial crisis as the tipping point when China's economic focus turned inward to boost its own economy instead of primarily exporting goods overseas. Alibaba took the lead, launching itself with an online payment system and a host of subsidiary sites, which attracted small businesses to sell merchandise through their Web portals with no fees. Noting that the company remains governed by a "customer first, employees second, and shareholders third" philosophy, Clark contrasts Alibaba's camaraderie-centered campus culture, including employee incentives and commitment awards, with its initial struggle to find startup investors and earn commercial credibility. The author frequently highlights Ma's quirky, often contrarian personality and risk-taking management style. A particularly vigorous chapter on the struggle between Alibaba and e-commerce titans eBay and Yahoo for profitability and marketplace saturation in China dramatically demonstrates the volatility and competitiveness between businesses seeking to harness Internet consumerism. Useful, business-minded reporting on an unconventional corporate magnate, containing both corporate and human-interest perspectives. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
