If you're going to try and embarrass someone on television, you'd better pick your target wisely.

Or avoid embarrassing anyone because it might come back to haunt you one day.

That might be the lesson learnt by one BBC reporter after footage of an old interview with Jack Ma resurfaced online.

"Are you a millionaire?"

The interview, believed to be about 20 years old, was supposedly conducted in aftermath of the dot-com bubble burst.

It featured a rather cynical presenter prodding Ma over the viability of his business.

"Tell us something we’ve never heard about the internet. We’re fed up with hearing what it might do," the BBC reporter demanded.

Ma replied by describing the increasing mania and interest surrounding the internet in Asia.

But before he could finish, the presenter cut in:

"Presenter: Are you a millionaire?

Ma: Now? No."

He then questions Ma about whether his website makes any money.

"Today? Uh the site, right now we are not making any money out of our site," says Ma before explaining that this phase of the business is about "attracting attention".

The interviewer cracked on with his questions, unconvinced.

"Can you see why people think it’s so much hot air? You don’t make any money. You’ve got extraordinary claims, and yet you make nothing," he said forcefully.

"That's the internet" replied a grinning, unflinching Ma.

The aftermath of the dot-com crash

To put the presenter's scepticism in context, the interview with Ma occurred in 2000, while the world was still reeling from the effects of the dot-com bubble crash.

This was brought on by excessive enthusiasm and speculative investment into internet-related companies, eventually resulting in many investors getting burnt.

Yet, even with that in mind, this interview did not age well.

One comment on the YouTube video asked: "Where is this reporter now?"

Ma and Alibaba have gone on to achieve enormous success, with Forbes reporting that the company has a market value of US$420 billion.

Ma himself retired from the company a billionaire (Forbes estimates his net worth to be over US$40 billion) and a rock star, at its 20th anniversary on Sep. 10 .

Top image screenshot from Edzai Conilias Zvobwo's YouTube Channel

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