China's Crocodile

Looks like Jack Ma will get his wish. Yahoo is apparently in talks to buy Alibaba.com, the Chinese B2B trading site run by Ma. When I met Ma, who also runs the eBay-like site TaoBao.com, almost a year ago, he told me he'd like to go back to teaching English by the time he was 40, which he did before becoming a tech entrepreneur. Born in 1964, Ma will turn 41 this year.

The thing I remember most about the meeting -- besides Ma's excitable, almost crazy enthusiasm and his diminutive, elfin frame -- was something he said about the value of local knowledge. He was talking about how he thought TaoBao, which doesn't charge fees to consumers, could beat out eBay in China (and flexing Yahoo's muscle, perhaps they can). "eBay is the shark in the ocean," Ma said. "We are the crocs in the Yangtze river. Even the water smells differently."