12 of the best quotes from Jack Ma’s speech at the APEC Summit in Manila

Jack Ma earlier today at the APEC Summit in Manila (Photo by GMA)

Alibaba founder and chairman Jack Ma says he never thought he’d someday stand in front of the world’s finest minds to talk about his dream. But today, he did just that in Manila, where leaders of 21 countries and executives of Fortune 500 companies gathered for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit.

Chatty as ever, Ma talked about his days as a small entrepreneur, how Alibaba started and grew to the giant it is today, and what the world needs to create more such companies.

His speech ran for about 15 minutes. As expected, it was full of juicy quotes. Here are the best ones:

Ma believes that the internet should be made simple enough so more people who are scared of the technology can use it to do business online. He recalled how he and 17 others who started Alibaba in his apartment years ago knew nothing about the internet.

Until today, the only thing I know about the computer is how to receive and send emails, browse, and watch videos.

What he is most interested in is how nations will use the web to help small businesses grow across the world. He said in China, Alibaba has helped 12 million merchants sell to customers online. On Singles Day on November 11, which is China’s – and the world’s – biggest online shopping day, Alibaba saw record-breaking sales worth over US$14 billion, which he didn’t imagine when they were starting the ecommerce company in 1999.

If China can do it, why can’t other nations do it? If it works in China, why can’t it work for other nations?

In the early days, venture capitalists didn’t even want to invest in ecommerce in China because of poor infrastructure.

But I tell you one thing, one of the reasons why China ecommerce grew faster than the US is because the infrastructure was too bad. When the internet came, we made the infrastructure really work and sophisticated.

World’s biggest shopping day

And now China’s ecommerce is much bigger than the US, he said. On Singles Day, he said the sales were so amazing that in the afternoon they had to slow them down otherwise the whole logistics system in China would crash.

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