A LEARNING FROM FACEBOOK AND ALIBABA

Currently, the photo of Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, jogged at Tiananmen, Beijing in its hazy weather shook the social media world. “Smog Jog” has been the trending topic lately and many criticisms showered the post. Despite many comments and criticisms, Zuckerberg visited Beijing to attend the state-backed economic forum last weekend. This economic forum’s purpose was to discuss China’s economic plans. Along with Zuckerberg, Alibaba’s founder, Jack Ma also attended the forum. Let’s see what lesson we can get from the meeting of this 2 amazing businessmen!

China Development Forum

Even though his creation, Facebook, is banned in China, it doesn’t stop Mark Zuckerberg to learn more about Chinese culture. When people also criticized his decision to ‘give away’ his wealth, even more, they also criticized his own private life, which is his wife! Wow, if I may ask, how do you react with this situation?

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has many friends in China and leaves many impressions in the country. From giving speeches in Chinese at one of China’s best university, Tsinghua University, and posting online about Chinese books he’s been reading.

China Development Forum, the three days conference, which was hosted by the research division of China’s cabinet, gathered important people from all around the world, including Christine Lagarde was on the list. For Mark, he shared a stage Jack Ma to discuss the Internet’s role in the economy.

Zuckerberg and Ma shared their stage at China Development Forum last week

Like usual, Zuckerberg break the ice by speaking in Chinese. In his speech, he was explaining that he had been paying attention to China’s next five-year economic plan and the country’s biggest annual political event, nearly concurrently meetings of the legislature and a government advisory body, which ended this past week.

Cross-culture Learning

The interesting thing was when these 2 big bosses complimented each other country’s business culture. Zuckerberg praised China’s focus on science and technology development said that, this development would give a bright future for China.

On the opposite side, Jack Ma said US entrepreneurs are more accustomed to what their competitors are doing globally, as Chinese culture isn’t traditionally so competition focused. Jack Ma also added that he respected Mark’s efforts to learn Chinese because he liked the culture instead of just to do business there.

Last but not the least, Alibaba’s founder raised a story of his first meeting with Zuckerberg. Nine years ago at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss Alps, it was the first time they met and during which, they briefly chatted and exchanged phone numbers.