SHANGHAI — After being knocked back by U.S. venture capitalists in 1999, cashstrapped Chinese entrepreneur Jack Ma persuaded friends to give him $60,000 (TL 125,500) to start an e-commerce firm called Alibaba. Fifteen years later the company is an Internet giant and Ma, a former English teacher, is among the topmost ranks of China's super-rich with wealth estimated at $8.4 billion by Forbes magazine.Ma, now 49, gave up his university teaching job after discovering the Internet. Seeing an opportunity for small businesses to buy and sell their goods online, he started Alibaba, initially running the company out of his apartment in the eastern city of Hangzhou.Ma has inspired strong devotion among his employees and users, drawing comparisons with late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, although he practices a more open management style. A devotee of t'ai chi, he has made references to Chinese martial arts in both business strategy and corporate culture. Porter Erisman, a former Alibaba employee who made a documentary about the firm, "Crocodile in the Yangtze," said, "What Silicon Valley is known for, he embodies a lot of that with Chinese characteristics, that spirit of openness, risk-taking, innovation." Chinese state media have burnished his rags-toriches story, saying his parents were poorly educated and his father depended on a monthly retirement allowance of just $40 to support the family. Ma's success was evident after Alibaba's Taobao bested eBay in China, forcing the U.S. auction site to largely withdraw from the country in 2006.Although he stepped down as Alibaba's chief executive last year, Ma remains active within the company, providing strategic direction as chairman.