ALIBABA founder and former schoolteacher Jack Ma is today’s modern version of the poor little rich man. At 50, he became China’s richest person after the Sept. 19 initial public offering (IPO) of his e-commerce giant on New York Stock Exchange.

    The IPO, which broke global records for the highest amount raised at US$25 billion in fresh capital, boosted Ma’s value to US$28 billion. On Tuesday, Alibaba again broke records by earning US$9 billion thanks to China’s Singles Day online sales.

    However, while his bank account keeps on getting fatter, Ma’s happiness meter continues to plummet, confirming the adage that money can’t buy happiness — not even if you have US$28 billion, which Ma couldn’t spend faster than he could earn it.

    “It is great pain because when you’re [the] richest person in the world, everybody [is] surrounding you because of your money ... Today, when I walk on the street, people look at you in a different [way]. I want to be myself,” Ma told CNBC.

    He also attributes the sadness he felt at the start of November to intense pressure on how the stock market would behave and on the high expectations people have of him. But Ma says he tries to be happy because the negative feeling could be felt by his business partners, shareholders and customers.

    Like other multibillionaires ahead of him, such as Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Ma plans to follow their benevolent footsteps by paying it forward through the creation of philanthropic organizations to help create a better world, likely centering on education and the environment.

    He explained, “If you make a lot of money, you’ve got to spend it. You can’t do this by buying 10 bars or 11 houses. You want to spend money in an effective way. You want to spend it in a business way that can really help people.”

    Ma said that with his new outlook toward wealth, he and Gates are now locked in a new battle over who can spend the most money “in the most effective and philanthropic way.”

    A charity list released by China-based luxury magazine publisher Hurun in October said Ma has donated 14.5 billion yuan (US$2.37 billion) to charity, surpassing Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, who ranked first among the U.S.’s biggest donors by giving nearly US$1 billion to charity in 2003.

    Ma poured much of his personal wealth into the creation of one of Asia’s largest philanthropic trusts in April, highlighting what many see as the dawn of a new era of giving among China’s freshly minted billionaires.

    (SD-Agencies)