I am somewhat addicted to AliExpress app on my phone. Just about every week we’ll have a tiny package arrive all the way from China. It feels like receiving a mystery gift every time because it’s been 4 weeks since I ordered the item so I’m not sure what’s inside.
The items are of such high quality, so cheap and the free shipping is irresistible.
I’ve known about Alibaba for a few years but hadn’t made a purchase until AliExpress.
There were 3 big surprises in the book:
- Alibaba wasn’t the “overnight success” that I thought it was
- In fact, it’s 20 years old
- China is big. Really big.
- Yes, we all know that China has more than 1.2 Billion people but I little human brains have trouble processing the shear scale of a number that big
- Alibaba sends out 30 million packages per day
- Jack Ma built one of the first websites for China, and co-founded one of the first China-based companies that built websites for clients in 1995
My notes on “Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built” by Duncan Clark. Continue reading “Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built, by Duncan Clark”