作為中國最富有的人之一，馬云的財富總值將近300億美元。作為阿里巴巴集團董事局主席，他領(lǐng)導(dǎo)著中國電子商務(wù)領(lǐng)域的巨無霸：一家擁有2,640億美元市值和大約4.5億用戶的公司。去年，作為代表中國企業(yè)的全球大使，他飛遍全球拜訪各國王子、總統(tǒng)、總理以及眾多商界人士，期間一共在飛機機艙內(nèi)度過800小時?！坝腥烁嬖V我，就連一個專業(yè)飛行員都飛不了那么長時間。”他帶著有點自我炫耀的語氣說。

當(dāng)那些與馬云會面的富翁和高官在和他揮手道別時，他們對馬云本人，以及他18年前在浙江省會杭州和朋友共同創(chuàng)辦的，目前仍然少有人知的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)巨型企業(yè)往往又多了某些全新的認識。醫(yī)學(xué)專家、現(xiàn)任世界銀行行長的金墉四年前在一場持續(xù)三個多小時的晚宴上見到馬云時，吃驚地看到這位億萬富翁腳上穿著涼鞋，手里拿著佛教念珠，盤腿坐在椅子上。馬云通過專注于為小企業(yè)服務(wù)而促進全球貿(mào)易的熱情打動了他。當(dāng)時，這位世界銀行領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人正在反思世行自身很多做法存在的問題。

其他人則被馬云的為人所感動。中國網(wǎng)約車服務(wù)初創(chuàng)企業(yè)滴滴出行總裁柳青早在很多年前就認識了馬云，并把他當(dāng)成自己的導(dǎo)師（阿里巴巴同時也是滴滴的股東）。她最近了從自己家人處了解到，馬云以前曾經(jīng)見過一個女裁縫。這位女裁縫生病后馬云多次前去探望。柳青說：“他真的很關(guān)心周圍的人?！?/p>

另外還有新任美國總統(tǒng)。他在就職典禮幾周前第一次見到了馬云。“特朗普幾乎從沒看到過關(guān)于阿里巴巴的報道，”曾任高盛銀行家兼高盛亞洲分公司總裁，現(xiàn)任阿里巴巴集團總裁的邁克爾?伊文思（Michael Evans）說，正是他促成了這場會面。“中國消費者很希望能購買美國小企業(yè)的產(chǎn)品，他對此很感興趣?！瘪R云利用這次談話的機會做出了大膽承諾：未來5年中，阿里巴巴將在美國創(chuàng)造100萬個就業(yè)崗位。在當(dāng)選總統(tǒng)的耳朵里，這句話無疑是一首悅耳的樂曲?！斑@是一次偉大的會見，”他在川普大廈大堂里的攝像機前宣布。站在他身旁的是同樣神采奕奕的特朗普：“馬云和我要做一些偉大的事情?！?/p>

特朗普總統(tǒng)并不是唯一一個剛剛開始了解阿里巴巴的人。盡管阿里巴巴在中國已經(jīng)如雷貫耳，并且阿里巴巴2014年在紐交所成功上市融資250億美元后，西方投資者也已知道了這個名字，但是對于大多數(shù)外國人來說，馬云的公司仍然是一個謎。原因很簡單：在中國這個世界第二大經(jīng)濟體之外很少有阿里巴巴的客戶。馬云當(dāng)然知道到這種影響力的差距。這就是促使他一年飛行數(shù)百小時，到處推廣他的公司和計劃的原因。

為了實現(xiàn)他的夢想——依靠先進科技，在阿里巴巴數(shù)字化平臺上實現(xiàn)世界范圍內(nèi)的商品采購、銷售、投資和運輸——近年來，馬云一直把自己包裝成全球商業(yè)領(lǐng)袖的角色。他已經(jīng)成為第一位可以自豪地宣稱已經(jīng)沖出國界，走向世界舞臺的中國企業(yè)家。在他的環(huán)球之旅中，馬云幫助降低貿(mào)易壁壘，推廣他自己的慈善品牌，并支持小學(xué)教育等公益事業(yè)。他對自己的全球化進行了細致精巧的定義，使之和中國國家主席習(xí)近平的目標，以及特朗普的美國優(yōu)先政策相一致。

和這么多領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人會面，馬云的動機是很復(fù)雜的。盡管中國已經(jīng)成為一個巨大的消費市場，并且仍然處在快速增長中，但是馬云知道，他必須搶占新的市場，才能讓阿里巴巴能夠保持當(dāng)前的發(fā)展速度。像其他中國明星企業(yè)一樣，阿里巴巴在中國國內(nèi)具有強大實力，國外競爭對手難以進入它的地盤。但是，如果目前這種一家獨大競爭格局出現(xiàn)變化，外國市場的重要性就將更為顯著。與此同時，在其旗下網(wǎng)站因為大量出售假冒商品而遭到廣泛批評的情況下，馬云還需要大力改善阿里巴巴的聲譽，從而贏得世界各地消費者的信任。

馬云擁有獨一無二的機遇。幾個世紀陷入停滯后，他的國家最近正在努力恢復(fù)其作為世界領(lǐng)袖的地位，正如他的阿里巴巴已經(jīng)躋身于世界一流企業(yè)的行列。在直覺指引下，今年52歲的馬云似乎意識到，現(xiàn)在正是他超越單純的名氣，成為全球最受尊崇的商界領(lǐng)袖的最好時機。

阿里巴巴 VS 亞馬遜

如果硬要比較的話，馬云和一位秉性固執(zhí)的美國電商企業(yè)家亞馬遜CEO杰夫?貝佐斯很相像。貝佐斯在去年《財富》年度世界最偉大領(lǐng)袖名單中位列首席。兩人都以他們的堅忍不拔、管理理念、以及日益擴大的風(fēng)投企業(yè)清單而聞名（和貝佐斯一樣，馬云現(xiàn)在也擁有一家知名報紙）。目前，兩家公司已經(jīng)開始在其各自的本國市場外發(fā)生實質(zhì)性對抗。出乎人們意料的一個事實是，阿里巴巴的業(yè)務(wù)發(fā)展已經(jīng)超過了亞馬遜，至少其盈利能力已經(jīng)超過后者。另外，無論在北京還是華盛頓，馬云與政府的關(guān)系都要比貝佐斯更為緊密。要知道，貝佐斯擁有的《華盛頓郵報》已多次引起特朗普的憤恨。

然而，馬云目前與白宮的良好關(guān)系在很大程度上是由于他對特朗普總統(tǒng)許下了創(chuàng)造就業(yè)崗位的承諾。那個大膽承諾與馬云最初的說法存在些微差別。具體而言，馬云預(yù)測，阿里巴巴將與100萬家美國小企業(yè)簽約，幫助后者入駐他的多個電子商務(wù)平臺，其中主要包括專做C2C生意、流量巨大的淘寶網(wǎng)；以及專為成熟消費型企業(yè)打造的高端電商平臺天貓。在中國，共有1,000萬家小企業(yè)入駐阿里巴巴旗下各家電商平臺。據(jù)估計，這些小企業(yè)總共聘用了3,000萬名員工。早在1年前，馬云就在《華爾街日報》發(fā)表了專欄文章，提出了幫助美國小企業(yè)將產(chǎn)品賣到中國，從而為美國創(chuàng)造100萬個就業(yè)崗位的計劃。據(jù)阿里巴巴估計，每個加入阿里巴巴下屬各電商平臺的美國小企業(yè)都會增聘一名員工，這就是100萬個新就業(yè)崗位的來源。

開門見山地提出這一大膽承諾的馬云是一位天生的推廣者和溝通者。常駐中國的投資顧問，同時也是2016年上市的著作《阿里巴巴：馬云和他的102年夢想》一書作者的鄧肯?克拉克（Duncan Clark）把馬云的這種習(xí)慣描述成“戲劇般”的和有效的。“我認為，它至少化解了緊張，”克拉克說這番話的同時，美中關(guān)系正在日趨惡化。“馬云非常善于和各色人物打交道?！本驮谒f這番話后幾個星期，馬云控制的阿里巴巴下屬企業(yè)螞蟻金服宣布將以8.8億美元收購總部設(shè)在德克薩斯州的支付平臺速匯金（Moneygram）。然而，這筆潛在交易僅僅在幾周之后就被美國企業(yè)Euronet“截胡”。阿里巴巴恐怕需要得到美國政府的支持才能成功拿下這筆競購。

很多人認為，馬云和特朗普的關(guān)系預(yù)示著阿里巴巴將打入美國消費市場。目前，阿里巴巴宣稱更愿意幫助美國企業(yè)將其產(chǎn)品出售給中國消費者，而不是反過來?！叭藗儾煌栁遥骸銈兊拿绹鴳?zhàn)略是什么？你們的美國戰(zhàn)略是什么？’”阿里巴巴集團總裁伊文思說。他說，應(yīng)該說我們的美國戰(zhàn)略并不是要在美國市場與亞馬遜火并。實際上，阿里巴巴的美國戰(zhàn)略分為三個層面：與成熟品牌合作在天貓上銷售產(chǎn)品；幫助對解決就業(yè)問題價值最大的小企業(yè)通過淘寶網(wǎng)銷售產(chǎn)品；在公司最早推出的業(yè)務(wù)Alibaba.com外貿(mào)平臺上為美國整機制造商和中國零部件制造商牽線搭橋。伊文思說，天貓上目前有7,000家美國品牌在運營。阿里巴巴沒有透露其他兩個電商平臺上的美國企業(yè)數(shù)量，原因可能是因為數(shù)量太少了。

阿里巴巴一直津津樂道于這家位于曼哈頓蘇荷區(qū)、名為Stadium Goods的運動鞋寄售店的發(fā)展史。伊文思饒有興致地回憶起一年多前阿里巴巴邀請這家小公司參加紐約的一場會議的情景。這場會議的目的是培訓(xùn)他們?nèi)绾瓮ㄟ^阿里巴巴平臺銷售產(chǎn)品。后來，Stadium Goods的員工人數(shù)從寥寥幾人迅速擴大到60人。這是真的，Stadium Goods的創(chuàng)始人兼CEO約翰?麥克菲特斯（John McPheters）說。在這么多員工中，只有3名會中文的人直接操作阿里巴巴平臺。對于這家公司來說，中國代表著巨大的商機。今年，他們共向中國售出價值1億美元的商品，其中90%是通過網(wǎng)購渠道售出的。他說，通過阿里巴巴平臺達成的銷量占其網(wǎng)售總量的10%左右，并且全部是通過阿里巴巴集團的高端平臺天貓售的，天貓對假貨的打擊力度比其他平臺要大得多?！拔覀冏詈诵牡纳虡I(yè)原則就是只賣真貨，”他說?！拔覀兘⒘藝栏竦膶彶橹贫却_保銷售的產(chǎn)品全部為正品。中國消費者非?？粗厣碳业恼\信?！?/p>

麥克菲特斯很會說話。他一直在強調(diào)，他的公司很看重阿里巴巴的天貓平臺。這實際上是在暗示他不愿意通過假貨猖獗的淘寶網(wǎng)平臺做生意。淘寶網(wǎng)的假貨問題非常嚴重，12月，美國貿(mào)易代表再次把淘寶網(wǎng)列入其“惡名市場”名單。建立這個名單的目的是為了敦促美國以外的問題市場自查自糾（淘寶網(wǎng)在名單上位于俄羅斯網(wǎng)站Rutracker.org和非法下載網(wǎng)站Pirate Bay之間）。過去幾年來，阿里巴巴一直在努力解決假貨問題。他們一直說自己盡了最大能力巡查淘寶網(wǎng)，馬云自己也提出了更為極端化的對策。在最近發(fā)表于一家中國社交媒體網(wǎng)站上的貼文中，馬云呼吁要像對待醉酒駕車者一樣處罰制售假貨的不法分子。在中國曾經(jīng)極為猖獗的酒駕問題一直到中國政府對酒駕者采取刑事處罰才告解決。“對待制假售假者，總是雷聲大，雨點小?！彼谫N文中寫道。

《阿里巴巴：馬云和他的102年夢想》一書作者克拉克說，馬云巧妙地利用了中國全國人大會議期間公眾對打擊假貨行動的大膽呼吁。“他們沒法得到品牌和某些投資者的信任，”他說?！斑@正是漂浮他們頭上的一朵烏云?！?/p>

走向世界舞臺

擁有科學(xué)家般的好奇心是馬云取得商業(yè)成功的重要因素。他兒時在故鄉(xiāng)杭州通過看英文電影，以及與西方游客對話學(xué)習(xí)英語，成年后的第一個職業(yè)是英語教師。它是最早發(fā)現(xiàn)互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的中國企業(yè)家之一，他擁有變色龍般的能力，可以在正確的時間和地點展現(xiàn)自己。例如，1997年，當(dāng)他在創(chuàng)業(yè)的間隙為中國商務(wù)部短暫工作期間，得到了一個為來北京訪問的雅虎公司聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人楊致遠擔(dān)任翻譯的機會?！八軔蹎枂栴}，很自信，對數(shù)字化和互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的世界十分好奇，”楊致遠說。他的雅虎公司于2005年向阿里巴巴投資10億美元，楊致遠也由此成為阿里巴巴的董事之一（雅虎手里的阿里巴巴股權(quán)現(xiàn)在價值400億美元）。

馬云喜歡當(dāng)別人的老師?！斑^去12年，我一直把自己稱作‘首席教育官’，”他在杭州總部的辦公室接受遠程采訪時表示。2013年，他辭去阿里巴巴集團CEO職位（現(xiàn)任CEO張勇于2007年加入阿里巴巴集團）。馬云自稱，阿里巴巴集團是一家復(fù)雜龐大的公司，沒有人懷疑馬云對這家集團及其眾多下屬企業(yè)的所有重大決策的影響力。事實上，他時常把阿里巴巴和自然環(huán)境作類比，他自己很關(guān)注環(huán)境問題，同時也擔(dān)任大自然保護協(xié)會的董事。在馬云看來，環(huán)境和他的公司是同一枚結(jié)構(gòu)復(fù)雜的硬幣的兩面。馬云說，就像大自然的各個組成部分需要在生態(tài)系統(tǒng)中彼此協(xié)作那樣，“阿里巴巴也需要與社會、政府和所有類型的組織合作。”他說，如果可能，他想精簡公司?！暗亲霾坏健！?/p>

在提升阿里巴巴和他自己聲望的過程中，馬云也和多個國際組織建立了密切的聯(lián)系。去年，聯(lián)合國貿(mào)易和發(fā)展會議任命馬云為年輕企業(yè)家和小企業(yè)特別顧問，他同時也是瑞士達沃斯世界經(jīng)濟論壇上的?？?。很少有中國高管人士能夠與西方企業(yè)界的關(guān)系如此密切。

2015年，就在貝佐斯收購《華盛頓郵報》兩年之后，阿里巴巴收購了英文報紙《南華早報》。和貝佐斯一樣，馬云基本不干涉報紙的經(jīng)營，只是安排他的長期心腹、阿里巴巴副總裁蔡崇信擔(dān)任報社總裁，然后偶爾和報社員工開開會。貝佐斯自稱收購《華盛頓郵報》是為了支持這家對于民主制度而言必不可少的機構(gòu)。但是馬云卻說，他投資收購《南華早報》的目的是讓不懂中文的讀者獲得與中國有關(guān)的高質(zhì)量信息。

馬云認為，他自己必須行事高調(diào)?！斑\營規(guī)模如此龐大的商業(yè)體系”。他指的是每年在阿里巴巴各個平臺上完成、總價值高達4,850億美元的商業(yè)活動。“你必須承擔(dān)義務(wù)和別人分享你的想法。我們的創(chuàng)意、政策、決策會影響到5億人的生活?！卑⒗锇桶偷慕?jīng)營范圍比亞馬遜要更加廣泛。盡管阿里巴巴220億美元的年收入只有亞馬遜的1,360億美元的零頭，但是阿里巴巴的利潤卻超過后者：截至12月31日，阿里巴巴的年度運營利潤為67億美元，而亞馬遜則只有42億美元。但是深入分析一下就能知道，亞馬遜不僅擁有自己的倉儲設(shè)施，還擁有其大多數(shù)貨物庫存的所有權(quán)，這足以解釋其巨大的銷售額數(shù)字。相較之下，阿里巴巴只是一個輕資產(chǎn)式的技術(shù)平臺，其大部分收入來源是廣告費以及其他與銷售有關(guān)的收費。

盡管馬云在世界舞臺上呼風(fēng)喚雨，但是他的商業(yè)帝國卻存在一個缺陷：如果沒有政府的許可，你就必然會四處碰壁?！白鳛榘⒗锇桶瓦@只商業(yè)巨獸的掌門人，馬云知道，最好的自我保護方式就是進入不同領(lǐng)域，并且實現(xiàn)跨國經(jīng)營，”中國研究專家和記者、紐約中美關(guān)系亞洲協(xié)會主任夏偉（Orville Schell）說，他早在10多年就已和馬云相識。家住伯克利的夏偉說，幾年前，馬云造訪了他在加州大學(xué)伯克利分校上學(xué)的兒子，說很希望在這里住上一陣。“他買了一棟房子配齊了家具，希望每年有一半時間住在這里遠程遙控他的生意，同時充實精神生活，”夏偉說?！暗罱K還是沒能敵過把生意做大、做到全球的誘惑?！?/p>

馬云下一步想做什么？

馬云對未來的計劃讓人大跌眼鏡：他想退休。他說，早在他只有45歲時，腦子里就已經(jīng)出現(xiàn)了退休的念頭。同時，他也不希望到七老八十時依然列席董事會會議。“應(yīng)該給年輕人機會，”他說。他拒絕給出具體的退休時間，但很樂意告訴別人現(xiàn)在有哪些事情正在占據(jù)他的工作日程。講課就是其中之一，接下來是休閑放松?！拔矣凶约旱臅r間表，”他說?！八涝谵k公室，不如死在沙灘上。”

然而，沒幾個人相信這些話。據(jù)接近阿里巴巴的多位人士稱，阿里巴巴的所有重大決策都要他親自拍板，他同時也繼續(xù)參與規(guī)劃阿里巴巴的未來戰(zhàn)略。他并非公司控股人，持有股份比例不到8%，但是人人都知道他是阿里巴巴的實際老板。史蒂夫?喬布斯的股份比例比馬云還低，但卻一樣控制著蘋果公司。同時，馬云馬不停蹄地穿梭于各國同樣也是為了服務(wù)于阿里巴巴雄心勃勃的全球化戰(zhàn)略。一年前，馬云投入10億美元獲得東南亞電商企業(yè)來贊達（Lazada）的控股權(quán)。同時，阿里巴巴和中國領(lǐng)先支付平臺支付寶的運營商螞蟻金服也投資入股印度電商企業(yè)Paytm。盡管阿里巴巴還未曾大張旗鼓地打入美國市場，但它已經(jīng)投入大量資金收購Magic Leap、Lyft和Snap等美國初創(chuàng)企業(yè)的股權(quán)。阿里巴巴集團總裁伊文思說：“我們必須緊跟可能影響到商業(yè)的任何領(lǐng)域的新生事物，這一點對我們很重要?！?/p>

與此同時，馬云正在努力實現(xiàn)兩個目標：消除貿(mào)易壁壘和促進小企業(yè)發(fā)展。在大公司中，阿里巴巴的使命聲明最為簡潔：“讓做生意更容易?！痹谥袊?，阿里巴巴收購了一個名叫“菜鳥”的物流網(wǎng)絡(luò)的47%股權(quán)，面對中國效率低下的官辦郵遞系統(tǒng)，“菜鳥”的業(yè)績一直節(jié)節(jié)攀升。支付寶已經(jīng)把經(jīng)營范圍由支付處理擴展到提供貸款，由此遭到了中國規(guī)模龐大的國營銀行的嫉恨。馬云給這些新商業(yè)計劃起了一個新名字：世界電商平臺（eWTP）。這個包羅萬象的詞匯足以反映出阿里巴巴對其電商系統(tǒng)進行全球性整合的目標。

10年前，人們不會認為中國最大電商企業(yè)的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人會成為世界貿(mào)易的最大吹鼓手。馬云說：“我認為，全球化是一個偉大的開端，但它只是開始而已。”全球化是“一個嬰兒，”他說，“嬰兒也有成長的煩惱，”這明顯是在暗指特朗普大張旗鼓地宣稱將對中國開展貿(mào)易遏制?！拔覀儾荒芤驗閶雰禾淇蘧桶阉麣⑺?。”

馬云相信，通過商業(yè)的力量能夠?qū)崿F(xiàn)政客所無法實現(xiàn)的目標?！昂驼啾?，可能商業(yè)界才是真正能推進全球化的力量，”他說?！?00位國家元首匯聚一堂想要實現(xiàn)點什么目標是不可能的。但是如果200位商人聚在一起，可能就會馬上出來新點子?！?/p>

假如真有這種超級商界聚會的話，發(fā)起人恐怕也只有一個人：

馬云自己。

（財富中文網(wǎng)）

作者：Adam Lashinsky

譯者：鄭立飛

Jack Ma is one of China’s richest men, with a fortune valued at nearly $30 billion. As executive chairman of Alibaba Group, he leads the dominant force in Chinese e-commerce, a company with a market value of $264 billion and some 450 million customers. A global ambassador for Chinese business, he spent 800 hours aloft last year—-visiting princes, Presidents, and Prime Ministers and lots of mere businesspeople too. “A professional pilot cannot travel that much, or so I’m told,” he boasts.

Even so, the rich and powerful people who meet with Ma tend to come away from the experience with a fresh nugget of information, either about him or about the still poorly understood digital conglomerate he started with a bunch of friends 18 years ago in the provincial coastal city of Hangzhou. Jim Kim, a physician who is the president of the World Bank, met Ma four years ago over a dinner lasting more than three hours and was startled to find the billionaire wearing sandals, holding Buddhist prayer beads, and sitting cross-legged on his chair. Kim was so taken with Ma’s passion for facilitating global trade by focusing on small-business people that he’s rethinking his international development organization’s approach.

Others are moved by Ma’s humanity. Jean Liu, president of Chinese ride-hailing startup DidiChuxing, has known Ma for years and considers him a mentor. (Alibaba is a Didi shareholder.) She recently learned, through family connections rather than from Ma, about how he repeatedly visited a seamstress he had met after learning she was ill. Says Liu: “He genuinely cares about the people around him.”

Then there’s the President of the United States, who met Ma for the first time a few weeks before his Inauguration. “Trump didn’t know that much about Alibaba,” reports company president -Michael Evans, a former Goldman Sachs banker and Asia hand who helped set up the powwow. “He was fascinated to hear that Chinese consumers are interested in buying from U.S. small businesses. I don’t think that had occurred to him.” Ma used the sit-down to make a bold promise—that Alibaba would help create 1 million jobs in the U.S. over five years. The pronouncement was music to the President-elect’s ears. “It was a great meeting,” he declared before the cameras in the lobby of Trump Tower, a beaming Ma beside him. “Jack and I are going to do some great things.”

President Trump isn’t the only one who could stand to learn more about Alibaba. Despite its heft in China and the blockbuster 2014 public offering that raised $25 billion on the New York Stock Exchange and introduced Alibaba to Western investors, Ma’s company remains a mystery to most non-Chinese. There’s a simple reason for that: Few outside the world’s second-largest economy are Alibaba customers. Ma is aware of this knowledge gap. It’s part of what drives him to keep logging frequent-flier miles to educate people about his company and his plans.

To realize his vision—which relies on technology to buy, sell, finance, and deliver goods on Alibaba’s digital platforms around the world—Ma has been busily recasting himself of late as a global leader. Already he is the first Chinese business executive who can claim to have transcended his homeland for the world stage. In his travels, Ma promotes the lowering of trade barriers, touts his own brand of philanthropy, and supports causes such as primary-school education. His version of globalization is carefully calibrated and expansive enough to be consistent with the goals of his own President, Xi Jinping, as well as with Trump’s America-first positioning.

As with so many effective leaders, Ma’s motives are complex. China is already a huge consumer market and one that’s still growing fast, but Ma knows that eventually he will need to conquer new territories for Alibaba to continue on its current trajectory. Like other Chinese champions, Alibaba has thrived at home while foreign competitors have thus far been stymied from entering his turf. If that changes, foreign markets will be even more crucial. Ma also needs for -Alibaba—plagued by criticism over the profusion of counterfeit wares for sale on its sites—to develop a reputation as trusted around the world as Jack Ma is cherished by his fellow bold-faced names.

Ma’s opportunity is unique. After centuries of stagnation, his country has recently reassumed its position as a world leader—just as Alibaba, one of its marquee corporate names, has joined the ranks of world-beating companies. With characteristic intuition, Ma, 52, seems to realize that this is his moment to go beyond merely being famous and take his place among the globe’s revered business leaders.

Squaring off against Amazon

If you’re reaching for comparisons, Ma lines up favorably against a certain dogged American e-commerce entrepreneur: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, No. 1 last year on Fortune’s annual list of the world’s greatest leaders. Both are famous for their tenacity, their management philosophies, and their growing list of significant side ventures. (Like Bezos, Ma now owns a venerable newspaper.) One surprise, as the two companies enter the early phases of squaring off against each other outside their respective home markets, is that Alibaba’s business is actually better than Amazon’s, at least in terms of its profitability. Plus, Ma arguably has more felicitous government relationships than Bezos—both in Beijing and in Washington, D.C., given that the Bezos-owned Washington Post has repeatedly drawn Trump’s ire.

Ma’s current standing with the White House, however, rests heavily on his job-creating pledge to President Trump. And that bold promise is built on a bit of nuance. Specifically, Ma predicted that Alibaba will sign up 1 million U.S. small businesses to its various e-commerce platforms, primarily Taobao, its mass-selling site for individuals, and Tmall, its higher-end site for established consumer companies. In China, Alibaba hosts 10 million merchants, and it has estimated that those businesses account for 30 million jobs. The 1-million-job pledge updated a general goal of helping U.S. small businesses sell in China that Ma had posited a year earlier in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. The company now estimates that each U.S. business that sells on Alibaba’s platforms will typically hire one employee as a result, hence the 1 million new jobs.

Unpacked, the big promise is classic Ma, a born promoter and natural communicator with a finely tuned ear to the needs of government officials. Duncan Clark, a China-based investment adviser and the author of the comprehensive 2016 book Alibaba, the House That Jack Ma Built, labels the move equal parts “theatrics” and effective. “To me, it broke the tension,” says Clark, at a time of deteriorating U.S.-China relations. “Jack is very good at seducing and working the room.” A few weeks later, he notes, Ant Financial, an Alibaba affiliate controlled by Ma, announced plans to acquire the Texas payments firm Moneygram for $880 million, an offer subsequently topped by the U.S. firm Euronet. Alibaba would have needed the U.S. government’s blessing to prevail in the deal.

Many assumed Ma’s bonding with Trump presaged an Alibaba move into selling to U.S. consumers. For now, Alibaba professes to be more interested in helping U.S. businesses sell to Chinese consumers rather than the other way around. “People are always asking ‘What’s your U.S. strategy? What’s your U.S. strategy?’ ” says Evans, Alibaba’s president. What it isn’t, he says, is competing against Amazon in the U.S. Instead, Alibaba’s designs on the U.S. are threefold: work with established brands to sell on Tmall; help small businesses—the ones that would create new jobs—sell in China on Taobao; and match U.S. manufacturers with Chinese component makers on Alibaba.com, the company’s original business. Evans says Tmall hosts 7,000 U.S. brands. Alibaba doesn’t disclose U.S. figures for the other two categories, presumably because they are too small.

John McPheters, CEO of hip sneaker consignment retailer Stadium Goods in New York City, says Alibaba will account for 10% of his company’s online sales this year.

One company Alibaba does brag about is a hip sneaker consignment store in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood called Stadium Goods. Evans relishes recounting how Alibaba invited the tiny company to a conference in New York a little over a year ago to learn how to sell on Alibaba, and how Stadium Goods subsequently shot up from a handful of workers to 60 employees. That’s true, says John McPheters, the company’s cofounder and CEO, though only three of those employees, Chinese-language writers, are attributable to the Alibaba business. China is in fact a huge opportunity for his company, which is on track to move $100 million of merchandise this year, nearly 90% of it online. Alibaba will account for about 10% of online sales, he says, and all of it will be on Tmall, the company’s high-end site, which has much tighter controls to fend off fake goods. “Authenticity is a huge pillar of our business,” he says. “We have a crazy checklist” to ensure what the company sells is legitimate. “Chinese consumers are very focused on trust.”

McPheters is being polite. By stressing his company’s focus on Alibaba’s Tmall, he’s highlighting his unwillingness to sell on Taobao, which has been plagued with counterfeits. The problem is so bad that in December the U.S. Trade Representative reinstated Taobao on its “notorious markets” list, a “name and shame” tool intended to pressure non-U.S. marketplaces to clean up their acts. (Taobao.com appeared between the Russian site Rutracker.org and the Pirate Bay, an illegal-download site.) Alibaba has been struggling with this for years. The company typically says it is doing its best to police Taobao. Yet Ma himself has advocated more extreme measures. In a recent blog post on a Chinese social media site, he advocated treating counterfeiting like drunk driving, an endemic problem in China until the government imposed stiff prison sentences on offenders. “There is a lot of bark around stopping counterfeits, but no bite,” he wrote.

The public call to action, which came during the government’s annual National People’s Congress, was a bold but canny move for Ma, says Clark, his biographer. “They can never do enough to win over the trust of the brands and some investors,” he says. “It’s this cloud that is hanging over them.”

Taking The world Stage

An academic-like curiosity has been a hallmark of Ma’s success in business. He began his career as an English teacher, after learning the language by watching movies and chatting up Western tourists in his native Hangzhou. Ma was one of the first of a group of Chinese entrepreneurs to discover the Internet, and he had a Zelig-like ability to show up in the right place at the right time. In 1997, for example, while working for China’s Ministry of Commerce between startup efforts, Ma was assigned to work as a translator for Yahoo cofounder Jerry Yang on a visit to Beijing. “He was inquisitive, confident, and clearly eager to learn about the new world of digital and the Internet,” says Yang, whose company went on to invest $1 billion in Alibaba in 2005 and who is on its board today. (Yahoo’s stake in Alibaba is now worth $40 billion.)

he says during a video interview from his office in Hangzhou. In 2013 he stepped down as CEO of Alibaba. (The current CEO, Daniel Zhang, joined the company in 2007.) Yet no one doubts that Ma’s is the singular voice that matters on all important decisions regarding Alibaba and its many affiliates, a group Ma himself acknowledges is complex. In fact, he likens Alibaba to the environment, in which he has taken a keen interest as a board member of the Nature Conservancy. For Ma, the environment and his company are two sides of the same complicated coin. Just as the different components of nature need to work together in an ecosystem, says Ma, “Alibaba needs to work with society, government, and all kinds of organizations.” He would simplify his business if he could, he says. “But I cannot.”

Ma has gotten involved with numerous international organizations, in the process raising his stature and Alibaba’s. Last year Ma was named a special adviser on youth entrepreneurship and small business to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and he’s a fixture at the World Economic Forum in Davos, -Switzerland—the rare Chinese executive who mixes as easily with Western peers as with those in China.

In 2015, Alibaba bought the English-language South China Morning Post newspaper, about two years after Bezos bought the Washington Post. Like Bezos, he has taken a hands-off approach, meeting infrequently with its staff, having installed his longtime dealmaking confidant, Alibaba vice chairman Joe Tsai, as head of the organization. Whereas Bezos framed his purchase as aiding an institution integral to democracy, Ma explained his investment as ensuring that non-Chinese-speakers have access to high-quality information about China.

The Alibaba chairman sees his high profile as an obligation. “Running such a big economy”—his word for the $485 billion worth of economic activity that took place on Alibaba last year—“you have the responsibility to share with people what you think. Our ideas, our policies, our decisions are going to affect the lives of half a billion people.” The scope of Alibaba’s business activity is instructive, again, in comparison with Amazon’s. While Alibaba’s revenues of nearly $22 billion are tiny compared with Amazon’s $136 billion in sales, Alibaba is far more profitable. Ma’s company had operating profits of $6.7 billion in the 12 months ending Dec. 31, vs. Amazon’s $4.2 billion. Whereas Amazon owns warehouses and takes ownership of much of the inventory it sells, which explains its higher sales figure, Alibaba is an “asset-light” technology platform, making money mostly by charging for advertising and other sales-related fees.

There is a business imperative behind Ma’s global leadership, given that nothing happens in China without the government’s explicit or implicit permission. “I think Jack understands that as powerful as Alibaba is in China, his best protection is to diversify into a multinational,” says Orville Schell, a China scholar and journalist who is director of the Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations in New York City and who has known Ma for more than a decade. Schell, who lives in Berkeley, says that a few years ago Ma came to visit his son, who was attending UC--Berkeley, and aspired to stay for a while. “He got a house and furnished it, and hoped to live half time and audit courses, participating in the life of the mind,” says Schell. “But then the siren song of his business and making it bigger, greater, and more global took over.”

What’s next, Jack?

Ma has a startling confession: He wants to retire. He says he first began preparing for that day when he was 45. And he doesn’t want to be one of those old men who attend board meetings long after they’ve lost their mojo. “They should give the young people a chance,” he says. He demurs on revealing exactly when he plans to bow out, though he has ideas about what activities will occupy his time. One is teaching. The other is relaxing. “I have my own timetable,” he says. “I don’t want to die in my office. I want to die on the beach.”

Few take this talk seriously, however. Multiple observers close to Alibaba point out that no major decisions happen without him and that he continues to shape strategy for Alibaba. He owns just under 8% of the company, not a controlling stake, yet everyone understands that people work for Jack—much the way Steve Jobs ruled Apple with an even smaller share of the company. And Ma’s globetrotting serves Alibaba’s global ambitions. A year ago it paid $1 billion for a controlling stake in Lazada, a Southeast Asian online retailer. Alibaba and Ant Financial, which runs the dominant Chinese payments platform Alipay, have invested in Paytm, an Indian e-commerce player. And while Alibaba’s operational forays into the U.S. market have been furtive, it has invested aggressively in U.S. startups, including Magic Leap, Lyft, and Snap. Says Evans, the company’s president: “It is important for us to keep abreast of things that could have an impact on any aspect of our business.”

In the meantime, Ma is pursuing his twin goals of knocking down trade barriers and boosting the fortunes of small businesses. Alibaba has one of the simplest mission statements of any big company: “to make it easy to do business anywhere.” In China, this meant investing in a network of logistics companies called Cainiao—Alibaba owns 47%—that vastly improved on the meager capabilities of the government’s postal delivery system. Alipay is now boldly branching out from payment processing to loans, at times angering China’s massive state-owned banks. Ma has crafted a new label for such initiatives: the World e-Trade Platform, or eWTP. It’s a catchall phrase to explain the global integration of Alibaba’s e-commerce systems.

A decade ago it would have been unfathomable that the leader of China’s biggest e-commerce company would be perhaps the most prominent corporate voice on world trade—though no more unlikely than that the President of China would give a pro-globalization address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, as Xi Jinping did in January. Ma was in the audience when Xi spoke, and he met with Xi there. “He made a wonderful speech and a commitment to globalization,” says Ma. “I think globalization is a great start, but it’s just the beginning.” Globalization is “a baby,” he says, “and the baby is having growing pains,” obliquely referring to Trump’s full--throated trade challenges to China. “We should not kill the baby because he cries a lot.”

Then Ma pivots from government to capitalism, extolling his belief in the power of business to accomplish what politicians cannot. “Maybe the business community has to drive this instead of government,” he says. “I feel sorry for government. When you put 200 country leaders in the same room trying to realize something, it’s impossible. But when you put 200 businesspeople in one room, we might work something out.” And maybe Ma will be leading that conversation.A version of this article appears in the April 1, 2017 issue of Fortune with the headline "You don't know Jack."