Who is Jack Ma's wife? Cathy Zhang once said she fell for him because he 'can do a lot of things handsome men cannot do'
Zhang Ying is the wife of Ma Yun aka Jack Ma, the billionaire founder and ex-chairman of Chinese mega-site Alibaba. The couple shares three children and got married after graduating during the 1980s. They both started out by working as teachers and had met each other at the Hangzhou Teacher’s Institute, which is now known as Hangzhou Normal University.
Bambooinovator reports, Zhang said, "Ma Yun is not a handsome man, but I fell for him because he can do a lot of things handsome men cannot do." Even though Ma was named as one of the 10 best young teachers in Hangzhou, he decided to quit his job and open up his own translation company.
In the year 1995, Ma had started China Yellowpages, which is believed to be one of China's first internet-based companies before he set up Alibaba. Alibaba was China's first business to business commerce website which was launched in 1999 with 16 other partners. Zhang also quit her job and decided to help her husband run Alibaba as the company's "political commissar". However, Zhang revealed that she would spend most of the day preparing meals for those who attended her husband's meetings at all hours of the day and would do odd errands. It is said that a few years later, Zhang had asked her husband how much money the company had made to which Ma raised a single finger. She asked Ma, "Ten million yuan (US$1.6 million)?" he said "no". She then asked, "A hundred million (US$16 million)?" to which he said "no" again. "One million (US$160,000)," she told Ma, who looked disappointed until he said, "a day". According to Glamourpath, Zhang has a net worth of around $10 million now which she has gathered from her role as general manager of Ali Baba and the teaching profession.
Her fortune includes her rich wardrobe collection as well as her expensive jewelry. Ma is said to be the 21st richest man in the world and has an estimated net worth of $58 billion. Moreover, Alibaba is worth more than Facebook and processes more goods than eBay and Amazon combined.
It is reported that Zhang likes to stay out of the spotlight and maintains a lot of privacy over her personal life. She is said to be a kind-hearted woman, who is actively involved in social work and charity functions. She has also invested millions of dollars for improving education systems and the health sector.
We had earlier reported that post his brave criticism of the China regime, billionaire tech tycoon and Alibaba founder Jack Ma seems to have mysteriously disappeared from his own reality show. He has not been seen in public since late October 2019, say reports.
The former English teacher was also dropped as a judge on the final of 'Africa’s Business Heroes,' which is a 'Dragons' Den'-style TV contest for budding entrepreneurs. Ma's photograph was removed from the judging panel's webpage. He was also unceremoniously left out of a promotional video. A spokesperson for Alibaba said, “Due to a schedule conflict, Mr Ma could no longer be part of the finale judge panel of 'Africa’s Business Heroes'.”