it s spiritual. think out of box. you have to think out of box to win. reporter: and win he has. it s been 19 years since he cofounded alibaba and the company that began in the hung jo china apartment has grown into one of the largest internet companies in the world. in 2014 alibaba s $25 billion ipo was then the largest in u.s. history. and financial, the company s finance subsidiary has invested billions of dollars in companies around the globe. alibaba s e-commerce sites have fundamentally changed the way hundreds of millions of people shop in china and its mobile payment platform revolutionized how people pay for what they buy. all the while, ma has arguably become the most public face of china s tech boom, a charismatic, often inspiring figure for ordinary people, nicknamed papa ma on chinese internet. ma has faced his share of criticism, of course, critics his company merely copied ebay