Alibaba and the Opened Treasure of Online Trading
Ali Baba is an Arabian folktale hero, conjured up by Scheherazade in one of her 1001 tales, “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves”. But how do you get from this fairy tale character to naming a company after him? Perhaps it has something to do with an entrepreneur’s knack for knowing how to say “Open, Sesame!” when it comes to discovering a company’s hidden treasures and “Close, Sesame!” to keep them safe. By the way, staying out of sight is Jack Ma’s current ruling concern. The Chinese capitalist-entrepreneur has been living in Tokyo for the past six months, after communist authorities in Beijing tightened their grip on what was becoming a much too liberal domestic high-tech sector. More
