I like to play cards. I'm not very good, because I don't want to calculate, I just play by instinct. But I've learned a lot of business philosophy by playing poker.

Numerous analysts reported that Ma sold Alipay to himself below market value without notifying the board of Alibaba Group or the other major owners Yahoo and Softbank while Ma stated that Alibaba Group's board of directors were aware of the transaction. He was selected by Businessweek as a “Businessperson of the Year” in 2007 [3] and one of the 30 “World’s Best CEOs” by Barron’s in 2008. com Annual Shareholders Meeting in May 2009 Ma who is chairman and non-executive director of the publicly traded arm of the group encouraged those in attendance including shareholders customers and students from two Hong Kong universities to take matters into their own hands and take action in the form of starting businesses to cope with the economic downturn rather than waiting for government or business to help them.

He owns and is at the helm of two of the world's most popular sites in Mainland China Taobao and Alibaba. He is the first mainland Chinese entrepreneur to appear on the cover of Forbes Magazine and ranks as one of the world's billionaires.