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Ma Yun first came into contact with the Internet in a company in Seattle. People in that company told him that he could find what he wanted by tapping on the computer. So he typed the word "beer". German beer and American beer have all come out, but the data of China beer can't be found.
After returning home, Ma Yun decided to set up an Internet company in China. He wants to set up a website to collect information about domestic enterprises and publish it to the whole world online.
"I invited 24 friends to my house to discuss. I talked for two hours, and they were all at a loss, so was I. What's the last one? Twenty-three people said forget it, and only one said they could try. I thought about it all night and decided to do it the next morning, even though 24 people were against me. I think doing one thing, experience is a kind of success, you go and have a rest, if not, you can turn around; But if you don't do it, think of a thousand ways at night and take a road in the morning. "
1In April, 1995, Ma Yun paid 7,000 yuan in advance, and combined with his sister, brother-in-law, parents, relatives and friends to raise 20,000 yuan to set up Haibo Network, one of the earliest Internet companies in China, and started the "Chinapage" project-the famous Chinese Yellow Pages in the future.
After successfully publishing the homepages of the first batch of Internet customers in China, such as Wuxi Little Swan and beijing guoan football club, China Yellow Pages became famous in the circle. 1by the end of 997, the website turnover was actually 7 million!
The birth of Alibaba
Ma Yun is keenly aware that the internet climax all over the world is coming soon! Ma Yun made an appointment with everyone on the Qi team and made his own decision: "I will give you three choices: First, if you go to Yahoo, I recommend that Yahoo will definitely hire you, and the salary will be very high; Second, go to other portals, which I recommend, and the salary will be very high. Third, you can only get 800 yuan when you come back to Hangzhou with me. You live 5 minutes' drive from me. You can rent your own house, but you can't take a taxi. You have to work at my home. You make your own decisions. "Ma Yun gave them three days to consider.
Ma Yun felt a little lost when he saw his close friends coming from Hangzhou to Beijing one after another, but he still firmly believed in his choice. After only 3 minutes, everyone turned around and said, Ma Yun, let's go home together. At that moment, the strong Ma Yun shed tears. That is, at that moment, he said to himself: My friends have not wronged me, and I can never do anything that I am sorry for them! Let's go back and build a company that we will never regret.
199965438+1October 15, Ma Yun and his team quietly returned to the south. Returning from Beijing to Hangzhou, he became a veritable "unemployed".
Before Ma Yun's team left Beijing, when visiting the Great Wall, they found that many Shi Zhuan were engraved with "Visit here", from which they vaguely saw the shadow of BBS; At the Asian e-commerce conference, he also found that the so-called "Asian" e-commerce conference was actually dominated by blond Europeans and Americans, and there was no e-commerce model suitable for their own characteristics in the Asian market.
Unlike other Internet elites, Ma Yun has been living in the grassroots. Perhaps because of this, his idea was different from that of all e-commerce companies at that time-he didn't do business with 15% large enterprises, but only 85% small and medium-sized enterprises. Large enterprises have special information channels and huge advertising fees, while small enterprises have nothing. They are the people who need the internet most.
There is a video that truthfully records the scene when Alibaba just started:1February 2, 999/day, Ma Yunjia, Hangzhou Lakeside Garden, where Ma Yun's wife, colleagues, students and friends *** 18 people surrounded Ma Yun, and he waved fiercely. "From now on, we will do a great thing. Our B2B will bring a revolution to the Internet service model! " He took out the money and put it on the table. "Start-up funds must be pocket money. You are not allowed to borrow money from family and friends because there is a great possibility of failure. We must be prepared to accept the "worst case". However, even if Tai Sen knocks me down, as long as I don't die, I will jump up and continue fighting! In addition, you can only be a company commander or platoon leader, and I have to hire another cadre at or above the regiment level. "
All the people present raised 500,000 yuan and Alibaba was born.
When Alibaba was born in China, the Internet had blossomed everywhere. When other websites were busy bluffing and taking venture capital, Ma Yun didn't take the initiative to promote himself for half a year and concentrated on doing a good job in B2B websites.
Doing the right thing is always more important than doing it right. Venture capitalists "smelled the smell of B2B" and came to Alibaba. "At that time, we rejected 38 venture capital companies, and Ma Yun has been waiting for the most suitable one." Jin Jianhang said.
Until he met Goldman Sachs and Softbank, the critical Ma Yun finally felt that he was right. 1999 10 Ma Yun, who just got a $5 million investment from investors such as Goldman Sachs the day before, met Sun Zhengyi, chairman of Softbank Group. Just talked for six or seven minutes, Sun Zhengyi asked Ma Yun: "How much do you want?" Ma Yun paused and said nothing. "I'll give you 40 million dollars." "I can't use 40 million dollars." "That 35 million." "I'll think about it." Back in Hangzhou, Ma Yun thought more and more wrong: "What a fool, what am I doing with so much money?" Ma Yun went to Japan for formal negotiations with Masayoshi Son, and finally reached $30 million. After returning home, Ma Yun thought it was still wrong, so he wrote a letter to Sun Zhengyi, "Sorry, I don't want $30 million. 20 million dollars, I can accept it. If not, we will end up like this. "
From June 5, 2000 to 10, Sun Zhengyi invested $20 million in Alibaba. In the same year, Ma Yun appeared on the cover of Forbes magazine. The magazine commented on Ma Yun: He has the same figure as Napoleon, and he has the same lofty ambition as Napoleon!
Alibaba's e-commerce map
In 200 1 year, the internet world entered a terrible "cold winter". At this time, Ma Yun put all his capital into the company's business, and he planned to put all his eggs in one basket. As a result of persistence, a unique technology platform was established in the cold winter when most Internet companies disappeared.
In the arena of ancient Rome, the last person standing was the winner. In 2002, Alibaba set a seemingly simple goal: earning one dollar, but this means that Alibaba will start to make profits in the year when the Internet does not make money.
In February 2004, Alibaba, which experienced the cold winter of the internet, once again won the favor of capital: Softbank came with investors such as Fidelity, T D F and GraniteClobal, and invested 82 million US dollars.
Last year, the slogan of "making only one dollar" was still lingering. In 2003, Ma Yun immediately put forward the goal of "earning 1 10,000 yuan a day", but when everyone thought that Alibaba would expand deeply in the B2B field, he suddenly decided to create Taobao to challenge Yi Bei, the world leader in C2C field.
"When Ma Yun made this decision, almost everyone opposed it." Jin Jianhang said.
The confrontation with Yi Bei is tragic. Facing the challenge from Taobao, Yi Bei formed an "offensive and defensive alliance" with many mainstream portals, which basically blocked all available publicity channels of Taobao.
Alibaba's "good luck" is coming again. Just when Taobao was surrounded by Yi Bei, Yi Bei began to charge its members. This just gives Taobao Jedi a chance to fight back. Ma Yun immediately announced: "Taobao will be free in the next three years!" This news immediately led to Yi Bei finally selling to Tom on the Internet and hastily withdrawing from the China market.
From June 5438 to 10, 2003, Alibaba's online payment platform Alipay was put into use, which further provided credit guarantee for online transactions.
In August 2005, the acquisition of Yahoo China made up for Alibaba's shortcomings in search technology. Because the future e-commerce cannot be separated from search engines. Moreover, Yahoo's influence in the global market will help Alibaba explore the market all over the world, which is more meaningful to Alibaba than pure technology.