The book is partially biographical (where Jack's hustle is evident as a child befriending Australian kids visiting China so that he could practie English) as well as a business book outlining the competitive landscape of the internet entering the Chinese market.
Charasmatic despite his looks being compared to ET, Ma focuses his companies and entrepreneurial spirit around the people of Hangzhou, where he grew up.
Struggling to score well on entrance exams, Ma does well enough to earn admissions to a local university for teachers. This proves to be an advantage as his familiarity with the culture of China is untainted by spending time and studying in the States.
The approach of these entrepreneurs, including founder of Yahoo! Jerry Yang (Taiwainese, studied at Stanford) are markedly different fom Ma. When the internet browser first started becoming popular, Google's clean lines and simplicity worked in the States and Europe, but not in China.
From Alibaba, a word Ma liked because of it could be easily pronoucned across multiple languages, Ma created Tmall (business to consumer platform) and Taobao (which means seeking for treasure in Chinese; consumer to consumer platform) which generate billions of dollars in sales during Nov. 11 on Singles' Day in China.
Alibaba does a deep into competitors who attempted to enter the Chinese market and the missteps that happened. Ma's approach was to always focus on the customer first, even if it meant less profit, which as a private company, he was able to do without pressure. Even when Alibaba did become public, Ma never pressured the CEOs on short-term profit.
Ma had a vision and remained focused on that vision. He also made savvy moves such as raising money when it was not needed. One of his axioms is that when companies go to raise money when it's needed, it's already too late.
Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang, 2022
Beautifully written. Slight mysticism with the 'magic' of silver but used as an approriate stand-in to talk about colonialism and power. Would highly recommend this epic. There is a deep dive into etymology as well, since words really are the power.
The story revolves around Robin Swift, a boy from Canton who is brought to England to live with Professor Lovell, who teaches linguistics at Babel's, Oxford fictional school of language.
Babel is an exclusive instituational and the scholars respected throughout the Empire. At Babel, Robin meets fellow students Ramy (an Indian Muslin), Victoire (originally from Haiti) and Letty (the wealthy English daughter of a British General).
Reminds me of Donna Tartt's Secret History except the group of students are at Oxford. Having spent a summer at an Oxford program, was neat to be reminded of the campus.
Despite it's 500+ pages, the story never gets stuck or predictable. I dragged my feet finishing the book because I did not want the story to end!
