Individuals or teams who have made outstanding innovations and contributions to the development of Asia

The Asia Society unveiled the first winners and awards ceremony at United Nations Headquarters in New York, with 13 individuals and teams who have made outstanding innovations and contributions to the development of Asia. Ma Yun, as the only representative of Chinese entrepreneurs, ranked first in the list of "creators of Change".

At the ceremony, Ma recalled his entrepreneurial experience, "I went to register the first company, want to name the Internet, the registration office told me, no, the dictionary does not have the word, you have to change the name of the company." He advised me to use a computer consultancy, but I don't even know what a computer is. So my first company is called Hangzhou Hope Computer Consulting company, it was very bitter, I was ignorant of technology and computer. ”

The Asian Association officially announced the introduction of Ma Yun Award:

When he was 10 years old, Jack Ma would ride a 40-minute bike every morning to a local hotel in his hometown of Hangzhou, just to practice English with foreign tourists. It was the first sign of his global vision that led him to become China's leading internet entrepreneur, founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group, the world's largest E-commerce company. And because of this global vision, we have awarded the "Asia Creator" annual award to Jack Ma.

The following is the full text of the speech after Ma Yun's award:

Thank you very much! Standing here tonight, I feel very honorable and humble. I never thought I would have a chance to come to the United Nations in my life. Thank you, Ms. Shi, for the Asian society.

I particularly want to thank Ellie for his comments on the teacher. At the age of 12, I began to learn English, for what, I do not know, I just feel in love with this language. At that time, 5 o'clock in the morning every day I will bike 40 minutes, to Hangzhou hotels to find foreign tourists, they teach me English, I take them to visit the city in Exchange.

From then on, I began to have a habit of thinking in my own mind and spending a few more minutes. When everyone is right, wait a few minutes, and when everyone says no, wait a few minutes and think about the thing. Because when you look at the world from a different perspective, you can also do things in different ways.

Tonight, I am deeply inspired by all these creators. In listening to their stories, I realized that there are so many things I can do in the world, there are so many things I can do better, there are so many things we can do together. Today I am not representing myself, but representing all the little people and small businesses that work with me.

When I left college in 1995, I told the headmaster that I wanted to be an entrepreneur and do the Internet. He asked me: What is the Internet? I replied: I don't know, he told me two hours after listening to me, Jack, I know you want to do something, I don't know what you do. But if you want to come back in 10 years, come back. I said: OK, 10 years later, if I want to come back, I will come back. As a teacher, you will always believe in the future. You believe that knowledge can change people's lives, you believe and hope that your students are better than you. Students are the best products. Today I am no longer a teacher, but I believe that in the company, the CEO represents the chief education officer. Because a lot of words, colleagues do not like me. But I am responsible for it and they are responsible for doing it.

It was very difficult to be a small entrepreneur in China when I started my business, and it took me 5 months to borrow 500 dollars and the company failed. I didn't have a chance and I didn't know how to run a business. I went to register the first company, want to name the Internet, the registration office told me, no, the dictionary does not have the word, you have to change the name of the company. He advised me to use a computer consultancy, but I don't even know what a computer is. So my first company is called Hangzhou Hope Computer Consulting company, it was very bitter, I was ignorant of technology and computer.

For the past 15 years, I have often said that I was a blind man riding on the back of a blind tiger, but the experts who rode on the horse failed and we survived. Because we are thinking about the future, we believe in the future. We change ourselves. We never complain about others. I told the team in my apartment that we have to prove ourselves, because if we succeed, 80% of young people in China will succeed. We do not have a rich father, a right uncle, we did not take a dollar from the government, did not take a dollar from the bank, we start from scratch. So I have to work hard not only to prove ourselves, but also to prove our generation, to prove the power of the Internet. That's what I want to share with young people.

Another thing I deeply believe in, is that the small is beautiful if I do not help small people, then I use the Internet to help small people. Multinationals are well cared for by Wall Street, and only small businesses have no one to help them. If we create value for them, we will succeed. Our philosophy is that if you help others succeed, you will succeed. I have always been a believer in the future, believe in young people, believe in innovation.

As the Secretary-General has said, the world is in a lot of trouble today. Today the world is full of complaints. I complained when I was more than 20 years old. Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, they are big companies and we are helpless small companies, they are too big. At that time, we complained too. But now I'm not complaining anymore because we've become one of the big guys. What I want to tell young people is that if most people are complaining, that's the opportunity. Some people choose to complain, and some choose to change themselves to help change others. Opportunities are in the places where they are complained. I will always believe this, and we are moving forward to this day.

The last and most important thing is that everyone in this room will be sent a T-shirt. This is a special limited edition t-shirt for Alibaba's IPO. All these t-shirts are made by little people, our small businesses. This is to give small people, small is beautiful, small has power. Printed on the T-shirt is very few people know the success of Alibaba password, like the open sesame, Alibaba has a password, that is "dream to have, in case one day to achieve it?" ”