alibaba: The Inside Story Behind Jack Ma and the Creation of the World's Biggest Online Marketplace (精装)

The first in-depth look at the multibillion-dollar company Alibaba.com—known to many as "China's eBay"—and the inspirational story behind the man who created it.

A bestseller in China and now translated into English and updated with recent events, Alibaba by Liu Shiying and Martha Avery tells the remarkable story behind the Internet phenomenon Alibaba.com and its founder Jack Ma, a man Barron's named one of the World's Top 30 CEOs in 2008. Ma's rise to prominence presents a riveting story: Despite growing up in China during the Cultural Revolution—in a period of total state control of the economy—he developed the keen entrepreneurial instincts that propelled him to billionaire status and enabled him to build a company outside the usual government channels. These instincts and habits incorporated martial arts training and allowed him to recognize, early on, that the Internet could leverage his company to rapid growth and also transform the way business is done around the world.

Alibaba.com, where businesses can buy and sell everything from air beds to zippers, started with a modest initial investment of $60,000 and has grown exponentially since its founding in 1999 to become the world's biggest business-to-business Web site. In 2007 it became the second largest IPO in history (after Google), and Fast Company has named it one of the world's most innovative companies. As a result, smart investors and technology insiders will be keeping a close eye on Alibaba for years to come. Whether you're seeking to understand China's meteoric rise, or just searching for the next Google, Yahoo!, or , Alibaba is crucial reading.

From Booklist Jack Ma had the odds stacked against him from an early age: Born shortly after the Cultural Revolution in China, a time of great social tension for all, his family was ostracized for having sided with counterrevolutionary forces. His growth was stunted, he had a lot of trouble in school, was stubborn and undisciplined; and being quite rebellious, he got into a lot of fights, but he usually lost because of his small size. He failed the college entrance examination twice and was nearly condemned to a lifelong profession of low-paying service work. Despite all this, Ma went on to create one of the largest online business-to-business marketplaces in the world in a country that has some of the most restrictive laws regarding Internet freedom. From an initial investment of $60,000 in 1999, Alibaba.com has surpassed eBay in China as the largest Web site on which to buy and sell goods, and is now worth $26 billion. How he did it is an inspirational story of perseverance in the martial-arts tradition of creating a will through positive reinforcement.

Liu Shiying is a journalist, CEO of Guangtian Xiangshi Culture Company, and chairman of the board of GT-SUNSTONE, a company that focuses on media consulting. He also serves as deputy secretary general of the Asian Capital Forum and is a consultant for the CCTV program Winning in China. Author of several business publications, he is working closely with CITIC Press and CCTV on a series of books and programs about major business personalities in China. He lives in Beijing.

出版社	Collins Business
作者	Liu Shiying