Last May, 40,000 Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. employees and customers met at a Hangzhou soccer stadium in driving rain to watch Jack Ma step down as chief executive of the Chinese e-commerce giant he founded in his apartment 15 years ago.

去年5月份，中国电子商务巨头阿里巴巴集团(Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.)的4万名员工和客户聚首杭州的一个体育中心，在雨中见证了马云(Jack Ma)卸任阿里巴巴首席执行长(CEO)一幕。15年前，马云在他的公寓里创建了阿里巴巴。

Before his valedictory speech, Mr. Ma belted out the Chinese pop song 'I Love You, China,' from the stage. The crowd roared.

在发表告别辞之前，马云高唱了一曲《我爱你，中国》，现场观众沸腾了起来。


'Taking over from Jack Ma is a difficult job,' he said, dressed in oversize glasses and a shiny silver jacket.

他说，接马云这个位置是非常难的。当天，马云一身潮流装扮，戴着大大的黑框眼镜，身穿银色闪亮夹克。

The three-hour extravaganza was a testament to the central role the 49-year-old Mr. Ma played -- and continues to play -- in what is arguably the world's biggest e-commerce company. Some employees describe the charismatic Mr. Ma as Alibaba's spiritual leader.

长达三个小时的盛典见证了马云过去在阿里巴巴扮演的核心角色，而未来马云仍将扮演这一角色。一些员工把个人魅力非凡的马云描述为阿里巴巴的精神领袖。阿里巴巴可以说是全球最大的电子商务公司。

As Alibaba prepares to submit its first major filings to go public as early as this week in what could be one of the largest initial public offerings in U.S. history, Mr. Ma -- now executive chairman -- still looms large in the company's dealings.

阿里巴巴最早将于本周递交第一份重要的上市申请，而马云在阿里巴巴的地位依然显赫。他目前仍担任阿里巴巴的董事局主席。阿里巴巴的IPO可能成为美国历史上规模最大的IPO之一。

'I thought it would be easier when I stepped down from CEO, but now I'm finding out being a chairman, if you want to be a good chairman, is much busier than being a CEO,' Mr. Ma told The Wall Street Journal.

详解阿里巴巴马云对《华尔街日报》说：“我原来以为卸任CEO后会轻松一些，但现在我发现董事局主席的工作比CEO要忙得多。”

Mr. Ma's success has given him celebrity status in China, where bookstore shelves stock his biographies and airports replay clips of his motivational speeches on business management.

事业上的成功使马云在中国成为名人，许多书店的货架上摆放着马云的传记，机场的电视里一遍又一遍地播放着马云关于企业管理的励志演讲。

Even after the expected multibillion-dollar IPO, Alibaba's corporate structure will allow Mr. Ma, who owns about 7% of the company, to have a say in nominating more than half of its board. Mr. Ma also owns 46% of the holding company that controls Alipay.

即使是在进行规模预计高达数十亿美元的IPO后，阿里巴巴的公司结构仍将允许持有该公司大约7%股份的马云有权提名董事会逾半数的董事。此外马云也持有支付宝的母公司46%的股份。

Such deals may raise questions about whether Mr. Ma would ever prioritize his own investments over the interest of Alibaba shareholders, said Paul McKenzie, an analyst at Hong Kong-based brokerage CLSA. Mr. Ma didn't comment on his investments.

里昂证券(CLSA)分析师麦肯齐(Paul McKenzie)说，这类交易可能令人质疑马云是否会把自己的投资凌驾于阿里巴巴股东的利益之上。马云对其投资不置评。

In an interview with the state-run People's Daily last year, Mr. Ma said China's banks aren't lending to the country's small businesses: 'I see there are 80% of the clients that are not covered.'

去年接受官方媒体《人民日报》采访时马云曾说，中国的银行不向国内的小企业贷款。他说：我看到的是80%没有被服务的企业。

At a conference last month, China Minsheng Bank Corp. Chairman Dong Wenbiao defended the current banking system and questioned Alibaba's financial ambitions. 'I said to Jack Ma, 'Give up your reform efforts. You don't have the ability,' ' Mr. Dong said.

在上个月举行的一次会议上，民生银行(China Minsheng Bank Corp.)董事长董文标维护了目前的银行体系并对阿里巴巴的金融野心提出质疑。董文标说：我跟马云说，你不要都革命了，你也没那本事。

After twice failing China's national university entrance exam, Mr. Ma was accepted to Hangzhou Teacher's Institute and graduated in 1988. As the economy improved in the early 1990s, Mr. Ma began looking beyond teaching for work in business. He has said he was rejected for a number of jobs, including as a manager at a Kentucky Fried Chicken.

高考两次落榜之后，马云最终被杭州师范学院录取，并于1988年毕业。随着20世纪90年代初经济状况改善，马云在教学工作之外开始探索商机。他说自己曾被多份工作拒绝，包括肯德基门店的经理。

Colleagues say Mr. Ma -- who is married with a son and daughter -- loves performing. At Alibaba's annual 'Alifest' conferences for customers and media, Mr. Ma has in past years shared the stage with former President Bill Clinton, Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Kobe Bryant and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

同事们称，马云喜欢表演。他已经结婚，育有一子一女。在客户及媒体参加的阿里巴巴年度网商大会上，过去几年马云曾与美国前总统克林顿(Bill Clinton)、洛杉矶湖人队球星科比(Kobe Bryant)和演员施瓦辛格(Arnold Schwarzenegger)同台。

Mr. Ma has 'that ability, even in a room of 600 people, to make people think [he is] talking to one person, to you,' said Duncan Clark, a longtime acquaintance and tech consultant based in Beijing.

驻北京的科技顾问克拉克(Duncan Clark)认识马云很长时间了，他说，马云有这种能力，即使在一个有600人的房间里，他也能让在场的人认为他是在单独跟你一个人谈话。

When eBay Inc. entered China in 2002 by teaming up with a local shopping site, Mr. Ma developed Taobao to compete head-on with the U.S. company.

阿里巴巴执行副主席蔡崇信(Joe Tsai)表示，马云说，进攻是最好的防御。

'Jack said that the best defense is offense,' said Joe Tsai, Alibaba's executive vice chairman.

马云还决定淘宝应该免去商家的产品目录费和交易费，尽管他的第一个网站Alibaba.com勉强收支平衡。免费模式使淘宝迅速吸引了商家，很快便超过eBay中国网站。淘宝后来找到了通过广告创收的方法。

Mr. Ma also decided that Taobao should let merchants sell without paying listing or transaction fees, even though his first website -- Alibaba.com -- was barely breaking even. The no-fee model allowed Taobao to attract sellers quickly, and the business soon overtook eBay's Chinese market. Taobao later figured out ways to generate revenue through advertising.

2009年，全球金融危机打击了利用Alibaba.com来寻找海外买家的中国小商家，包括Alibaba.com当时的首席执行长卫哲(David Wei)在内的公司高管提议将收费减半。

In 2009, when the global financial crisis hit small Chinese merchants who were using Alibaba.com to find overseas buyers, company executives -- including David Wei, Alibaba.com's then CEO -- proposed cutting fees by as much as half.

卫哲回忆说，马云当时说如果商家没有了，阿里巴巴将不复存在。卫哲还说，马云一刻都没有多想。

'Jack said if merchants disappear there will be no Alibaba,' Mr. Wei recalled. 'Jack didn't even think for a second.'

降低收费帮助阿里巴巴度过了金融危机，用户数量大幅增加，2010年 利润较2009年增长45%。

Cutting fees helped Alibaba.com weather the financial crisis and led to a jump in users, pushing up its net profit by 45% in 2010 over 2009.

尽管马云创建阿里巴巴时几乎没有任何商业或技术背景，但他却知道如何选贤任能。

Although Mr. Ma started Alibaba with little background in business or technology, he knew enough to pick the right people.

马云推出阿里巴巴几个月后，他聘用了台湾出生、耶鲁毕业的律师蔡崇信。从1999年从高盛集团(Goldman Sachs Group Inc.)获得第一笔500万美元投资到广受期待的美国上市，蔡崇信在阿里巴巴的筹资和收购活动中发挥了重要作用。

Current and former colleagues say Mr. Ma makes decisions with gut instinct.

2004年底，阿里巴巴决定推出支付宝，当时马云飞赴广州拜访了时任区域销售团队负责人的陆兆禧(Jonathan Lu)。陆兆禧现任阿里巴巴首席执行长。

In late 2004, when Alibaba decided to launch Alipay, Mr. Ma flew to Guangzhou to visit Jonathan Lu, Alibaba's current chief executive, who was then the head of a regional sales team.

陆兆禧回忆说，马云问他对支付宝或贝宝是否有所了解。陆兆禧回答说他不了解。马云答道：“好，就由你来负责支付宝。”