SHANGHAI: After being knocked back by US venture capitalists in 1999, cash-strapped Chinese entrepreneur Jack Ma persuaded friends to give him US$60,000 (RM194,970) to start an e-commerce firm called Alibaba.
Fifteen years later the company is an Internet giant and Ma, a former English teacher, is among the topmost ranks of China's super-rich with wealth estimated at US$8.4bil (RM27.29bil) by Forbes magazine.
