Quoted: Jack Ma on Alibaba conquering the world

FILE – In this May 21, 2012 file photo, men walk past the corporate logo at the headquarters compound of Alibaba Group in Hangzhou in eastern China’s Zhejiang province. Alibaba Group is aiming to raise $1 billion in a long-awaited IPO likely to have ripple effects across the Internet. The Tuesday, May 6, 2014 filing sets the stage for the technology industry’s biggest initial public offering since short messaging service Twitter and its early investors collected $1.8 billion in its stock market debut last fall. (AP Photo/File) CHINA OUT

By Levi Sumagaysay | CalMatters

PUBLISHED: September 12, 2014 at 3:20 a.m. | UPDATED: August 12, 2016 at 6:08 a.m.

In the past decade, we measured ourselves by how much we changed China. In the future, we will be judged by how much progress we bring to the world.

— Jack Ma, Alibaba CEO, in a letter to investors last week. The e-commerce/payments/trade/etc. behemoth he founded in Hangzhou, China in 1999 is in the middle of its IPO roadshow as it prepares to go public in the United States. The IPO has attracted so much interest that the company reportedly is planning to stop taking orders early. Alibaba s IPO, expected to raise more than $21 billion (valuing it at $162.7 billion), will be the tech industry s biggest ever. Facebook raised $16 billion in its 2012 initial public offering.

Photo from Associated Press archives