On the day he returned to Hangzhou, before he had time to rest, Jack Ma called his friends and students, saying that he had important matters to discuss.
That night, 24 people crowded into Ma's house to hear him talk about "American Adventures" and his Internet-inspired journey.
He told friends he wanted to start an Internet company and asked them if they had any ideas.
Everyone asked Ma Yun 5 questions in a row, but he couldn't answer any of them.
Everyone shook their heads and sighed together, saying that this would not work. Jack Ma asked everyone to vote, and 23 of them voted no. Only a person named Song Weixing said that he could try it, and if he couldn't, he would come back.
Seeing everyone's opposition, Jack Ma also fell into conflict.
This time starting a business is completely different from a translation agency. The translation agency is only a part-time job, but this time, if you want to do it, you must devote yourself to it, and you will have to quit your job as a university teacher.
At that time, the job of a university teacher was a golden job with a very high gold content. It took a lot of courage to give up, so Ma Yun struggled for a long time and was still unable to make up his mind.
One day when he was off work, Jack Ma met the head of the department who was shopping for vegetables. The head of the department is riding a bicycle with two handfuls of vegetables hanging from the handlebars. He may have also heard about Ma Yun's resignation, so he stopped Ma Yun and persuaded him not to resign and work hard.
As a result, the persuasion by the head of the department had the opposite effect. Ma Yun looked at the dean of the department and suddenly thought: Isn't his current appearance my future?
Thinking of living such a life in the future, Ma Yun shuddered, and quickly resigned when he turned around.
In April 1995, Ma Yun and his wife, together with He Yibing, a colleague from the Institute of Electronic Engineering, rented a 12-square-meter house on Wen'er Road, Hangzhou, and established a company called "China Yellow Pages".
He approached Stewart for cooperation, and Stewart said that the cooperation is fine, and I will help you get the technology, and a deposit of 200,000 US dollars is required.
200,000 US dollars, for Jack Ma at that time, he could not afford to sell the house.
He talked about everything, and under Bill's guarantee, Stuart agreed to help him build the website first without a deposit.
In July 1995, the China Yellow Pages website was launched, one of the earliest Chinese websites on the Internet.
That month, they took over a business to help the Zhejiang Provincial Foreign Propaganda Department with the "Golden Pigeon Project" to publicize Zhejiang's economic and cultural achievements. This web page caused quite a stir, and a U.S. senator even sent a letter congratulating a Chinese government department for going online for the first time.
However, despite the endorsement of the "Golden Pigeon", there are not many companies in the Chinese Yellow Pages website. The Chinese at that time didn't know what the Internet could do to them.
Ma Yun printed a business card of "Marketing Director" and sold it everywhere, but wherever he went, people regarded him as a liar.
In the end, Ma Yun had no choice but to use a trick: "The rabbit eats the grass by the side of the nest first", starting with relatives and friends.
He mobilized his former students and asked everyone to help.
An evening school student named Zhou Lan worked as the lobby manager of Wanghu Hotel. He helped Ma Yun make a deal and put Wanghu Hotel on the Chinese Yellow Pages.
It just so happened that the 4th Women's Conference was held in Beijing that year, and many foreign participants went to Hangzhou to play, and they all went to live in Wanghu Hotel, because this was the only hotel in Hangzhou that could be found on the Internet at that time.
As a result, the turnover of Wanghu Hotel in three months exceeded that of the previous year.
By the way, Zhou Lan later became Jack Ma's secretary, and worked his way up to the director of Alibaba's affairs department, the deputy general manager of the cross-border B2C business department, and the managing director of the Australia and New Zealand company.
In this way, through his students and friends, Jack Ma also started businesses such as law firms and TV factories.
For many years since then, he has always believed in the principle of "the rabbit eats the grass next to the nest first". He believes that you must have value in what you do before you dare to recommend it to relatives and friends. If even relatives and friends feel that it is worthless, then it will definitely not work.
However, relying on one's own students alone is obviously a drop in the bucket. Ma Yun also thought of many other ways.
Later, Ma Yun went to Beijing to find connections, went to various ministries and commissions to promote his ideas, and visited the media everywhere, hoping to gain popularity, but he didn't gain much.
A program called "Scholar Ma Yun" made by his fellow countryman Fan Xinman recorded Ma Yun's hardships during this period.
In the film, Ma Yun went to a certain state agency to contact business. At that time, he looked very immature and spoke timidly. He was not as confident as he is now.
Fan Xinman commented:
"(Jack Ma) looks like a bad guy. Although his words are eloquent, his expression is sneaky. People don't know what he is talking about."
It is conceivable that Ma Yun was rejected everywhere. The film faithfully records his loss and helplessness when he was kicked around like a football by various departments.
On the bus going back at night, Ma Yun leaned his head on the window glass, looked at the glass outside, and murmured:
"In a few years, Beijing won't treat me like this; in a few years, you all have to know what I do. I won't be so downcast in Beijing."
After several months of delay, the best opportunity for Ma Yun has passed. Ma Yun found that the Internet companies in the Beijing market have been surging, and there is no longer room for the Chinese Yellow Pages.
And the greater competitive pressure comes from home.
In 1996, Hangzhou Telecom also launched China Yellow Pages, forming a direct competition with Jack Ma.
The name of Telecom's China Yellow Pages is ChinesePages, which is very similar to Ma Yun's ChinaPages, but the other party's registered capital is 300 million yuan, while Ma Yun's is 20,000 yuan. The strength is not at the same level.
In order to survive, Jack Ma had no choice but to merge China Yellow Pages with a subsidiary of Hangzhou Telecom. Telecom invested 1.4 million yuan, accounting for 70% of the shares, accounting for 5 board seats; China Yellow Pages invested 600,000 yuan, accounting for 30% of the shares, accounting for 2 board seats.
Soon Ma Yun tasted the bitter fruit of cooperation. He and Hangzhou Telecom have completely different ideas, and all the development suggestions he put forward were rejected by the board of directors.
However, Jack Ma founded the China Yellow Pages, not for nothing.
In early 1996, China Yellow Pages recruited its first technician, Li Qi, who graduated from the computer department of Sun Yat-sen University. Later, Li Qi single-handedly built a new page of China Yellow Pages, freeing the company from the high costs of American outsourcing companies.
In April 1996, Sun Tongyu, who worked in a small advertising company, was fooled by Ma Yun and switched from Party B to Party A. He joined China Yellow Pages and soon brought in his girlfriend who was teaching at a university. His girlfriend is named Peng Lei.
Jiang Fang, Sheng Yifei, Han Min, Lou Wensheng, Wu Yongming and others joined China Yellow Pages during this period.
Many years later, Li Qi became the chief operating officer of Alibaba, Sun Tongyu became the founder and president of Taobao, Peng Lei became the chairman of Ant Financial and the senior vice president of Ali, Jiang Fang became the chief talent officer of Ali, Wu Yongming became the chairman of the board of directors of Ali Health and President of Yitao.com...
In November 1997, a team of more than 30 people from China Yellow Pages played in Tonglu Red Lantern Resort.
That night, Jack Ma suddenly announced that he would leave China Yellow Pages and go to work in Beijing. He asked who would like to go to Beijing with him. In the end, there were 6 people (or 8 in another way) who were willing to go with him.
Ma Yun sold half of his 21% shares to the remaining members, and then led the team northward.