Africa is the ultimate destination for unlimited business ideas and opportunities - Jack Ma

last year was my first trip to Africa before I came to Africa I worried a lot like anybody else uh this and that this is no good that is no good this is not safe everything but I said no matter whatever you worry you have to step on Africa and feel it and touch yourself so I came I thought it's too late why didn't I came 10 years ago Africa is a continent full of opportunities and I was inspired and I said from now on every year I'll come to Africa visit the three countries [Applause]

Africa in next 10 15 years I can finish visiting 54 countries in Africa every country and I came with a lot of friends business China and they say what we can do is we don't do anything come here feel it only when you feel it you will love it when when I leave left Africa last year I feel something something should be done a lot of things can be done and I asked myself one thing that the day when I stud Alibaba and I told my team and there is a sentence we remember if not

now when if not me who right so we said let's come to Africa do something and what this is this is why we came and people say well I forget there's so many problems tell me in the world there is a place there's no problems there's no place in the world there's no problems right and people say yeah Africa is a poor there's no wealth but I feel this is there's a the best wealth of human beings here you have a beautiful ear Blue Sky and the nature and white animals these are the richest assets

that the whole world of the mind and especially China we are the my blue sky right you you know I I wish I could stay here for 20 days and you know for a whole month here and I I visited the Ethiopia and Botswana and South Africa this time and we already started to play next year which what are the countries we want to visit and people say well Africa is too old but I think this Con this continent is such a young full of young people everywhere right and when you listen when you listen

to the entrepreneurs the e-founders when in Hangzhou I said these people the entrepreneurs in the in Africa they are the soup first class in the world I'm not I'm not I'm sitting from the heart the way they say the dream they believe the action and the passion this this is amazing I think this land is full of Chance full of opportunities full of Dreams entrepreneurs are do the things before everything's ready right there will be no Alibaba if everything's ready why Jackman you know we've this guy failed again again for so many times a failed

Examination for University for three times no money and my my father my mother both are very poor people in the room in the cities so there's no chance for us Africa the same today's Africa is much better than 19 years ago when we started Alibaba people it was such a terrible speed at that time they were using internet you know when I started my business 1994 for the internet I invite a lot of people say Jack is telling a lie there is no such thing called internet I went to register my company and uh in

the company registration office of people say what kind of a company you want to do I said Hanzo internet consulting company it's an internet there is no such a word in the dictionary they cannot register the company and in China was not connected to the internet the day when I registered my company three months later China was connected to the internet so in order to prove that I was not a liar I invited TV people came to my room we waited three hours and a half to download the first front page hey and that was

true right and this is say and at that time nobody believed internet nobody believe e-commerce nobody believed China would have e-commerce no logistic no credit cards the same passion people was asking you now how can Africa have internet companies how can you do e-commerce you don't have a credit card you don't have a logistic you don't have government support you don't have everything opportunity as an entrepreneur we never complain we make other people complain we make our competitors complaint we never cry because if cry can solve the problems yes of no problem we make competitors

cry we make those people who do not believe our dreams cry in my apartment when we started 18 founders and we aim high we have a dream we say we want to make become the top 10 internet companies or websites in the world guys at that time we are ranking several Milling name oh is it will be number 10 or the top ten of the world we want to make this company last 102 years and we don't know where is our pay next month when you are poor if you have a dreams you'll never feel

poor you know what we are doing so after we never say we will we will win next year or we win tomorrow we say we will win in 10 20 years 19 years past today we are the top 10 websites come internet companies in the world all right and 90 years back 90 years passed today we never think we never expect that Alibaba business Alibaba companies just an e-commerce without Ali and the financing Alibaba e-commerce our market caps 500 billion US dollars so think about it tell me 90 years ago anybody can see a company

in China can be the top 10 internet companies in the world or 10 years ago 20 years ago anybody can believe a company in Asia could be the top 10 Global Tech companies in the world so people here believe in Africa in 10 20 years you will have at least 10 20 F Alibaba companies because if you don't dream if you don't start to work this thing will never happen but if you start to do it you have a chance if not 500 billion 50 billion is okay imagine Africa to 1.2 billion people most people

young people right as I heard from my friend Dr katui you got 13 million young people graduate from University looking for jobs these are the resources when Alibaba start to hire people we could not hire people at all because nobody want to join a company strange name Alibaba right and work in the apartment and nobody believed e-commerce internet so we hired anybody who can walk we don't care right whether you are a vast degree or bachelor degree as long as you believe us so they join us we settled from nothing it was true for the

first 10 years was tough very difficult days because we cannot find the customers we cannot find a good Engineers we cannot find any any sort of resources we don't we cannot get money from the from the banks right so people say well you know in Africa we cannot get loans from the from the banks everywhere in the world Banks do not give small business money right so we start to be very careful for every every cent we spent and the day the our first IPO years Year 2007 when Alibaba I appeared in Hong Kong year

2007. we had a lot of millionaires in the company and I asked my friend my colleagues alike we have like a 300 people become Millionaires and I asked them hey now tell me you become millionaires because you are smarter than the others the people said no no no no no no we even cannot find the jobs right because you're hard working yes we work we find more people hard working than us but they do not succeed one of why they're not smart all the smart people at that time they went to Microsoft and IBN and

head hunting companies came to head hunt all the best guy from us and we are the people nobody come to head on us we have no place to go we believe in ourselves we believe our dream we work together so I say we are the people because nobody wants us I am the person over 30 companies don't want to meet right so we are the people get used to be rejected we are the people get used to be saying no from the other people why people should help you people help you that is unusual people

do not help you that is very common you should work to end to be helped right so in order to encourage my 8 or 17 Founders and all the people who join us I said our competitors are very strong at that time our competitor was eBay a lot of the eBay guys from graduate from Harvard we are people graduate from no I don't want to even measure but at the University names we're nobody but I say if we can win if we can succeed 80 percent of the young people in China in the world can

be successful because we believe we work a lot of our dreams but they don't work hard a lot of work are hard but they don't have dreams entrepreneurs should work plus dreams in this way we can win do not think about your own country think about a whole Africa think about the whole world if you only think about your own country there's no difference between thinking your own country and your own village they Internet connect everywhere and this continent is very simple people say very company I think it's a very simple if you have been

to Europe you know how complicated it is they worry too much you know security privacy this and that before the business is done they start to put a lot of rules and laws here you have nothing to destroy right right so this will the most difficult thing is to convincing a successful people successful people is telling you I don't do this don't do that you know we have experience of this and that we are the people we want to be successful we want to create the future we want to do something that we believed in

so I think the very important for Africa is to create jobs and the best way to create jobs is to encouraging small business the best way to create jobs is to trust the young people and I talked to the President yesterday evening we should every country in this this world this Century should encourage give good conditions tax conditions to the startups not big companies right it's and he I'm very happy to hear that he agreed because those big companies they don't need that we start up need that if you take tiny texts from those tiny

startups it's just like a taking the meat of the mosquito legs you're killing the others you did not survive so I there are this world there are so many great conditions for big companies it is time let's get policies for startups for young companies and also I'll encouraging all the entrepreneurs if you want to start a business don't think you will be successful next month or next year think about at least the five years because if something can be successful next month why you you have a rich father you don't have to be a startup

right and by the way don't be discouraged because you have a poor diploma or you know graduate from a poor University or low education don't worry about that if if however you would never be premiere right they can only be the white collar guys so as an entrepreneur you should have this what is the strategy for entrepreneurs strategy is time 10 years you compete with the other people the vision the water will be there will be there what kind of customers they need how we can build it up if you prepare for five years and

10 years if you have a good team and always do before the government do if you're waiting for government you have no chance right When government will say there is opportunity there go that direction because it will be too crowded in there right this is always so as an entrepreneur always ask yourself three questions what do you have what do you want and what will you give up what do you have we have nothing right the only things we have dreamed we believe we have a team and I believe we have the work time to

work hard and what do you want and what do you want you have that what the customer want what's the problem of the society what's the problem with your customers and what their team want think about what do you have we want and what we give up if you don't want to give up everything you will get nothing a lot of business people they never learn to focus if your startup learned to be focused on one thing because learn to be focused just like there are nine rabbits on the ground if you want to catch

the rabbit don't change the rabbit change yourself if you want to catch this one finally got nothing so for nine rabbits don't change the rabbit change yourself to catch that rabbit until you've got it a lot of things we have to learn it's a great experience to be an entrepreneur life is so cool when you become entrepreneur in my life the day I never write a book for myself I think those people write books are getting too old my life just the beginning the day when everyone Rabbi I want to write a book Alibaba 10001

mistakes and I want to tell my kids how many tough days I've grown through silly mistakes I've made and this is the best experience this is because it's easy to be good but it's tough to be bad