In 1997, the GDP was 7.44626 billion yuan, an increase of 8.8% over the previous year; the national fiscal revenue was 865.114 billion yuan, an increase of 16.8% over the previous year; the fiscal expenditure was 923.356 billion yuan, an increase of 16.3% over the previous year. The total retail sales of consumer goods for the whole year was 2,729.89 billion yuan, and the retail price index increased by 0.8% over the previous year.
The country's total import and export trade totaled 2,696.72 billion yuan, of which exports were 1,516.07 billion yuan, imports were 1,180.65 billion yuan, and exports exceeded 335.42 billion yuan.
The retail price of goods throughout the year increased by 0.8% over the previous year, and the consumer price increased by 2.8%.
Foreign exchange reserves continued to increase, reaching US$139.9 billion at the end of the year, an increase of US$34.9 billion from the end of the previous year.
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"Mr. Ma, Taobao, a subsidiary of Taobao Electrical Appliances Group, has been in business for two and a half years. It is the first e-commerce website in China, but it is still losing money. Alibaba website is also an e-commerce website. Why are you looking for Taobao Holdings? Series A financing? To cultivate a competitor, do you think Mr. Sun will agree?"
On February 28, HTIC Investment Consulting (Shanghai) Company came to two guests, Ma Yun, CEO of Alibaba.com, and Cai Chongxin, CFO.
Nowadays, I don’t know how many people are asking to see Sun Jian. Among them are many swindlers and liars with bright tongues. They have no reservations and are blocked by the guard at the door without giving them any face!
Ma Yun and Cai Chongxin also knew that Sun Jian was busy at home and abroad. They went directly to the headquarters of Taobao Holdings Company without making an appointment and did not see him for ten days and a half.
"Mr. Jin, as long as we can meet Mr. Sun, we can convince Mr. Sun to invest in Alibaba.com."
Ma Yun followed Cai Chongxin's suggestion and went to HTIC Investment Consulting (Shanghai) Company, where he found the general manager Jin Weimin and explained his intention and hoped to meet Sun Jian.
"Mr. Ma, Mr. Sun will meet you at the headquarters tomorrow afternoon."
Jin Weimin invited the two of them to sit down for tea. He found the Alibaba website on the Internet, which was only established on January 28 this year. After carefully reading the Alibaba website's Series A financing document, he felt that there was no hope for the other party, so he called Mr. Sun. Unexpectedly, Mr. Sun readily agreed to meet the two of them at the company's headquarters office.
"Thank you, Mr. Jin!"
Ma Yun heard that Sun Jian would be interviewing the two at the company headquarters tomorrow afternoon. He was happy but uneasy. He quickly went to the train station to buy a ticket and rushed to Jiangcheng overnight, thinking a lot along the way.
On May 7, 1994, Kunpeng Internet Company (PIC) connected to the international Internet.
After Ma Yun visited .pn. as soon as possible, the dream of starting a business came to him. He immediately thought of advertising for Haibo Translation Agency in the evening. He sent the advertisement online at 10 a.m. and received 6 ads from the United States before 12 noon. , Germany and Japan, he immediately realized that the Internet was a gold mine. He set up an Internet company by himself, specializing in the Internet. He collected domestic corporate information and put it online and released it to the world. He decided to cooperate with friends in Seattle. Created an electronic business model and named it China Yellow Pages (apage).
In 1992, Ma Yun, who was well-known in the translation industry in Hangzhou, established Haibo Translation Agency and hired retired teachers to be translators. In order for the translation agency to survive, he went to Yiwu and Yangcheng to purchase goods with his bags on his back. Haibo The translation agency started selling flowers and gifts...
In April 1995, 31-year-old Ma Yun and his wife Zhang Ying took out 7,000 yuan of their savings, and together with Ma Yun’s sister, brother-in-law and parents, they pooled 20,000 yuan and established Haibo Computer Services Co., Ltd., an Internet company. , becoming one of the earliest batches in the country.
In May, China Yellow Pages was officially launched, and Ma Yun began to do business from friends around him.
In July, China Yellow Pages built a website for the Foreign Affairs Office of Zhejiang Province to promote the economy and culture of Zhejiang Province online and named it "Golden Pigeon Project."
In 1996, the 32-year-old Ma Yun struggled to promote his Chinese Yellow Pages. He went out to talk to people about the Internet and persuaded customers. In many cities without the Internet, Ma Yun was called a "liar", but he was still as unyielding as a madman, every day. Remind yourself that the Internet is a 3,000-meter race that will affect human life for the next 30 years. You must run like a rabbit.
Just as fast, but as durable as a turtle.
The business started with great difficulty.
In March 1996, because Hangcheng Telecom also launched a Chinese Yellow Pages and shared the market, Ma Yun decided to cooperate with Hangcheng Telecom. The price of China Yellow Pages was 600,000 yuan, accounting for 30% of the shares. Hangcheng Telecom invested 1.4 million yuan in cash. Accounting for 70%.
The turnover in 1996 reached an incredible 7 million yuan.
Due to different business concepts, Ma Yun and Hangcheng Telecom parted ways and sold 21% of China Yellow Pages they held to the company at a price of 20 to 30 cents per share, getting back more than 100,000 yuan.
In early 1997, after Ma Yun left the Chinese Yellow Pages, he was invited by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation to join the newly established China International E-Commerce Center (EDI), which was established and managed by Ma Yun, accounting for 30% of the shares.
Ma Yun and his team developed a series of websites in Beijing such as the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, the online China Commodity Trading Market, and the online Canton Fair.
In the process, Ma's idea of using e-commerce to serve small and medium-sized enterprises gradually became clear, and he even thought about the domain name of the website, Alibaba.
[In view of the general environment,
The Internet is like an infinite treasure waiting for people to discover, just like the cave opened by Alibaba with a spell.
In October 1997, the 33-year-old Ma Yun could not stand the rules and regulations of government enterprises and was unwilling to be controlled by others. He decided to return to his hometown to start a business. All team members gave up their existing jobs and left.
On October 18, 1997, the first plenary meeting was held at Ma Yun's home in Hangzhou. The 18 entrepreneurial members sat or stood, solemnly surrounding Kang's passionate Ma Yun.
At the meeting to establish Alibaba E-commerce Co., Ltd., Ma Yun and 18 partners jointly raised 500,000 yuan in capital, and the entire process was videotaped as usual.
From this day on, Ma Yun became determined to develop e-commerce. Although he only had 500,000 yuan in entrepreneurial capital, he first spent 10,000 US dollars to purchase Alibaba's domain name from a Canadian and registered ali. and alibababy. ., in order to save money, the company did not rent an office building, but worked in Ma Yun's home. At most, there were more than 30 people sitting in one house, working 16-18 hours a day, designing web pages day and night, discussing web pages and ideas, and was trapped. Then he lay down on the ground.
Hard work pays off!
On January 28, 1998, the Alibaba website was officially launched, attracting the attention of the media and venture investors.
In the A round of financing, Ma Yun offered 30% of the shares at a price of US$2 million, and approached Goldman Sachs Group and Fidelityvestor AB, but the other parties requested an increase to 49% of the shares, or US$1 million to hold 30% of the shares...
The reasons for the three companies to increase their chips are almost the same.
The domestic high-speed Internet highway network has not yet been built. Only 3% of households in big cities have computers, not even 1% in small and medium-sized cities, and almost none in rural areas. 90% of small and medium-sized enterprises do not have access to the Internet, and delivery services can only rely on the postal system. Domestic e-commerce is still just a concept. There will be no chance of profit within 10 years, and we will continue to burn money!
Facing the competition from Taobao, the first domestic e-commerce company, there is no chance of winning.
