Jack Ma [File photo]

Birthplace: China

Notable facts: Ma's first job was as an English teacher. He also once tried—and failed—to get a job at KFC.

FP contends that Alibaba is not China's eBay, its Amazon, or its Wal-Mart, but something entirely new: a conglomerate that includes China's largest business-to-business trading platform, its largest consumer-to-consumer retail trade site, and other trading websites that together dominate e-commerce.

Jack Ma, who founded Alibaba in his apartment in 1999, possesses not only the tenacity and managerial brilliance to build a large company, but the vision to synthesize proven technology— things that companies such as Yahoo, a major investor, had already established—with new ideas like providing credit ratings and escrow services, or prioritizing customers and employees over shareholders.

Alibaba's initial public offering in September, which raised roughly $25 billion, was the largest in history and made Ma the richest man in China. The company's market capitalization at press time—$271 billion—makes it worth more than Amazon. Ma's philosophy? Learn from your competitors, but "copy and you die."