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In the past 50 years, Korea has seen extraordinary development from post-war devastation to the fast-paced society that it is today. During such development, companies such as Samsung, LG and Hyundai have not only become the nation's largest corporations but also some of the world's top competitors in industry.
In 2014 when the Alibaba Group, a Chinese business-to-business mobile platform, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, Korean entrepreneurs realized the consumer power of China as well its success in shifting from a manufacturing-based economy to a data-based one.
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| "The Arrival of Alibaba: Ruling 2 Billion Consumers 24/7" by Lim Jung-hoon and Nam Sang-chun |
The book summarizes the life of Jack Ma, the co-founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group. Having faced failure in both career and academic endeavors (he was rejected from 30 job applications and multiple business school attempts), Ma began his entrepreneurial journey in 1995 when he created China Yellow Pages, a company that built websites for other businesses.
Four years later, he and his friends created Alibaba, a company that would become a business-to-business mediator. Within a year, Alibaba received investments from world-class firm Goldman Sachs, which was quickly followed by Fidelity Investment. The company now serves 2 billion customers and has been predicted by Wall Street to become one of the top two companies in the world in the next decade (with the other being Amazon).
Lim and Nam attribute the company's business model as well as its win-win attitude to its great success. While other large corporations place a high emphasis on the capitalist approach of gaining profit for only themselves, Alibaba ensures both sellers and buyers benefit from the platform.
Alibaba is ubiquitous among Chinese users: they can pay for public transportation via Alipay, stream videos on Youku and listen to music on Xiami, all of which Alibaba Group owns. Through its extensive services, Alibaba stays relevant to its users by catering to consumer needs in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The book also notes Alibaba's engagement with the Korean business sector. The company expanded into the Korean market when it launched Tmall Korea, an online mall for Chinese customers to purchase Korean products.
Alibaba followed such ventures with buying 4 percent of SM Entertainment's shares in 2016. Through this, SM Entertainment gained more opportunities to promote its acts in China and established a foothold in the Chinese music market. Alibaba also invested in Kakao Pay, the online payment service of Kakao Talk, which allows its users to send and receive money free of additional transaction fees. These investments into Korean companies indicate Alibaba views Korea as a promising economic power.
In "The Arrival of Alibaba: Ruling 2 Billion Consumers 24/7," the authors emphasize the growing dominance of Alibaba in the age of mobile usage. They stress there needs to be a change in Korean innovation and address the Korean public, especially the youth, on how to act accordingly in preparation for the future. "We hope more members of the Korean youth take different paths from those of their peers. We also hope to improve Korean systems to encourage and support these youths so that miracles can happen overnight."
Jin Yu-young is a Korea Times intern.
