Jack Ma on the Company's New Frontiers

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Well, this is real. I think when you are doing business, you focus on the KPI, revenue, and the profit. I think life is so boring about that. You have to do something fun. So I love magic, I love singing songs, and I love kung fu. So I think I want to make myself happy and meanwhile make my customer happy, my friends happy.

Yeah, it's already on YouTube, Facebook. I know you could. Well, I try to do something better. I spent 12 days, 9 o'clock in the morning to 9 o'clock in the evening. I never late for one minute. I never know making movie takes such a long effort. Oh, that's fun.

My honor.

Well, first, my request to my team: $15 billion next five years on technology. I have one request: it shall last longer than Alibaba. This will be our legacy to this world. It's not about we want to invest in technology to empower ourselves. It's something that we want to build this thing like a Bell Lab for the human beings. And the second request I have is that the job is not like most of the traditional technology companies. Traditional technology companies try to empower themselves. I want, using this money, to make the technology empower others, making sure that technology is inclusive. I want to say, if you invest, if you have this technology, you need to have $10,000. I want to sell this technology for $1 with 50% profit. So this research and development is not for the benefit of Alibaba; it's for the benefit of the world, human beings. As a company like us, we're big, we have resources, we have money, we have engineers, we have influence, and we are so profitable, and we know we'll continue to be profitable. But the money we have, by investing the money in the technology, of course benefits us, but will also benefit all the small businesses, all the young people.

Yeah, of course. But the thing is, we want to make sure the artificial intelligence, which we call machine learning, right? People call it artificial. I don't like that word. We want to make sure this is improving human lives. We want to make sure people, human beings, benefit from the technology. People like me know nothing about technology, but we learn, we benefit from technology. And we want to make sure people should not be scared of the technology because technology, the computer, they're smarter, they never forget, they have patience, they never get angry. But they don't have a value, don't have a mission, they don't have love. So that's why in the future, we have to be careful about our education system. We have to focus on the IQ, EQ, and LQ, the Q of love. The Q of love, you are different from machines. And so technology can't help you on the LQ.

Yes and no. Part of it is right, but I'm more confident, optimistic for the future. I noticed human beings have been worried about technology for hundreds of years. And human beings should have confidence. I think we have a lot of problems we don't have a solution today, but there are solutions. We don't have solutions, but we have to believe our kids have solutions, our grandchildren have the solutions. So don't worry about it. There's always people smarter than we are. We should not think we are the smartest people in the world.

Well, the smartest people on artificial intelligence and computer science, yes, but not necessarily all the others like philosophy, life, and value, and all the other stuff.

Sure. I've been traveling so many countries last year and the year before. I think I have so confidence in China. Number one, the stability of political system. People criticize China the one party, but they see in the past 20 years or 30 years, amazing things be changed. In America, Democratic or Republican, you don't know. We've got two confused. The policy of Democratic and converse of democracy is always changing. You don't know who will be the next president, and you just get used to that. A new policy comes. So China, stabilized. You will never see a party, a country like that. It's so stabilized. I traveled so many countries. Second, China is such a safe society. We don't have two or more than 200 million guns. People own it, right? We don't see a lot of people have a gamble, you know, that they be the robbing and things and stuff. With the country, one phone call, 1.4 billion population, it's comparatively the most safe country in the world. And third, the market. In the past 30 years, China's big but shallow, not deep. Today, China market is wide and deep. We got 300 million middle class people, which is almost the same size as America. In next 10 years, we're going to have half a billion people will be middle class. We have a layer of different income people. And the other thing is very important: talents. I think we've got more than 150 million people have high degree of education, which is almost like 50% of the American population. And lastly, I am confident in this country. If this country is still talking about globalization, it's still talking about open door policy and encouraging entrepreneurship, this is on the phone. Fuel companies about we go back to the first one: stability.

I think history proved, past ten years, especially last five years, the system of stability in China worked very well. But also we have Alibaba, where the Tencent, we have all the old innovations coming up. Innovation is not about engineer. Innovation is about you solve problems for today, tomorrow, and future. So this is what I think. Where does the innovation come from? You have to solve the problem. The big problem, you have to solve the problem. You have to solve the problem in a different way, most efficient way, and you have the sub problem by results. So I think China...

No, I think it's one of the 80% of my reason last year going global is that going to all the countries is I want to share our experience. I want to share my view and our view that globalization is a great step. It's just a baby. Let's improve it. Trade is so good because when trade stops, war starts. If trade stops, peace stops. So this is why we're traveling around the world. One Road, One Belt. We have to make sure everybody benefits from the free trade. We have to make sure every country benefits from the globalization. We have to make sure farmers can sell things. We have to make sure young people benefit.

Well, I don't think so. I think people are smart. I think people understand that it's easy to launch a war, but it's so difficult to stop a war.

Yeah, I think he listened. I talked to him about how important trade is, how important it should be doing business with China globally. And I think he's making progress. He's trying hard. We see the China-US trade. We have problems, right? Not only two countries. The problem is very simple. And you see even wife and husband have problems. So I think they are trying their best. I think that's why we should never wait for politicians or president to talk. Business people, we have to do our best to build up the environment, to build to connect ourselves, to talk. We should never wait for policies. We should go before the policy and try to do it.

No, we're not a conqueror. We're serving. Serving the rest of the world the way we serve China.

Well, people always think compare us with Amazon. Amazon is a great company. I respect. I've been seeing them from a tiny to that big. And I think they will continue to grow. But we are different. Amazon is an e-commerce company. We are not an e-commerce company. We enable other people to do e-commerce. We want to make sure everybody can be Amazon. So you saying Tencent is the greater? Tencent is, of course, a great company. And you know, it's not easy to be that size within only such less than 20 years. So innovative and so creative and so different on social technology. And they're basing certainly in China, and they're almost everywhere in China. I respect. Of course we compete, but compete does not mean I have to hate them. So Pony Ma will be here this afternoon. Do you have a question you'd like us to ask him?

Press him. And probably him and people, his dream. This is what I say, you know, we don't hate your competitors. Respect your competitors. Learn from them. But you know, Pony and I, we've been doing the charity together, the Nature Conservancy, and protected the... but we compete each other. But when we compete each other, we should respect each other. I respect him. I respect him.

Okay, that's a good question. Would you repeat the question? I'm not sure.

Right, right. First, let me see this. Alibaba will get bigger and bigger, but Alibaba itself is not big. We are empowered. We are an economy. We're not a normal company. We are an enabler. We enable small business to reach the consumers. For example, we enable them to reach into the rural areas of China, right? This is something that traditional channel can never do. We enable every small business to reach the money. We're enabling every small business to take the technology in a very cost-effective way. We call ourselves we are infrastructure builder, the infrastructure of doing business. This is what we do. And the other thing I want to say: monopoly. It is so difficult to monopoly. What has monopoly mean? Monopoly, like 300 years ago, the emperor's house, they give this some special license to the young people, and the government controlled the monopoly family. They don't give him. This is last century's in the industry period because you have the money, if you have the banks, you can control. Today, tell me any Internet companies can guarantee they will be successful for more than five years? Very difficult. We saw Yahoo disappeared. We saw Netscape disappeared. Last 18 years, Alibaba transformed themselves at least 80 times. So you at least we are not like yesterday. No concerns about monopolistic power in the tech community. I cannot sleep well every day because I know when the company is big, you're not. Move fast. Don't wait for the other people to kill us. We will separate ourselves.

You always have to worry. You have to be paranoid. And you have to enable the others. So this is what we think. You have big company have to operate like small company. If you cannot operate a company in a small like a small company, you're dead. So I think the last advice I give to myself and give to you is that last century, the bigger the better. This century, the good the better. Do the business not because the size. It is not necessary the big size you are the more profit you are.

I believe that. It's different. You know, we got Fortune 500 companies. You judge because of the size. How many of them are really happy? How many of them profit? No. Small companies, they are very profitable. They're very happy because spend time with the wife and husband and kids, traveling around. And that's life.

Well, Alibaba has just finished its 18-year anniversary. We want to last 102 years, so we have 84 years to go. Why 102 years? Because every number you give your team should be serious, should be accurate. We were born 1999. Last century we had 1 year. This century we want to have 100 years, and plus 1 year to cross 3 centuries. So we never say we're successful. 18 years, which is about 18 years, like 80 years to us. We have overcome so many problems and difficulties. So I think we're just the beginning. The world is so interesting, full of great opportunities. So we think, you know, cloud computing just the beginning. Artificial intelligence, how can artificial intelligence empower our customers instead of empower ourselves? How we can build a network that every country in the world are connected because of the e-commerce? This is what we think. So I think we are just a baby, or at least we're just a young person. Yeah, I don't worry about it. You know, we today, our GMV wise, ranking number 21 economy of the world. But our expectation, our vision, year 2036, we want to be the fifth largest economy of the world by 2036. Next 20 years, you have to prepare for that. Well, the Trudeau PM from Canada, he said that Canada is a great place to do business. Let me tell you, the virtual economy, Alibaba is a great place to do business. We build up a new user laws. And by the way, as your second question, opportunity is everywhere. Opportunity means responsibility. What problem you solve for the world? The bigger the problem, the bigger the opportunity.

Thank you so much for the question. Thank you. I'm the... I was born a very poor family in a city, beautiful city, Hangzhou. And so I learned myself. And everybody, nobody expected I will be today. I never thought I would be today. I am a very lucky person. Fortune 500, I'm a fortunate person. I really... I never know why I'm so lucky. You know, my life with so many great people doing so many things. Of course, people hate me, people like me, all right. But for Alibaba, I want to make sure this company never forget the first day's mission. We have to empower small business, empower young people, empower women using technology. And this is what I can... I cannot guarantee Alibaba will be profitable and the most profitable company like myself, but I will try to do anything before I retire, making sure the people remember the mission, the value, the vision of the company and continue to do that. This is the company we go: empower small business, young people, women. But for my personal life, I don't want to die in the office. I want to die on the beaches. I want to enjoy my life because we come to this world not to work. We come to this world to enjoy life, make your friends, have good families, and traveling around the world. So Jack, I'm rich. I want to do something. But of course, I will not only enjoy life. I would be a teacher, back to my teaching experience. Hope University and... super nice. I want to do Jack Ma Foundation, the environment protection, empower the poor people. This is something that I would put 90% of my time. And as always, I love to spend the time with the young people, entrepreneurs. So this is what I want to do.

Doing business in China is difficult, just like doing business in any country. Don't tell me China is the most difficult. If you cannot survive in China, I barely think you cannot survive in a lot of other countries. Doing business in other countries, number one rule: respect the culture, respect the market, respect the consumers. Number two: have a strong leadership, send people with great entrepreneurship, not send people like professional managers. Those people make boss happy, not make the customer happy. They have to make customer happy, not boss happy. And third: have patience. If you don't have patience... a lot of Internet companies come to China, they want to have a quick win. I want to win in one year. I want to be successful in three years. Impossible. China is a huge market. Have patience. Please. I was in Starbucks last night. They've been here for 18 years. For the first nine years, big mess. Last nine years, great. So China, we do have a lot of successful multinational companies: Walmart, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft. So many companies made fortune in China. But of course, up and down just like any business. So have patience and respect market, respect the rules and laws. That's all I want to share.