Profits among the penniless (or, slum capitalism)

In the making of money, as in all things human, fashions mysteriously come and go. Retail franchises, software start-ups, dotcoms �� all have had their day on the cutting edge of capitalism, only to drop off. What, then, is the new black in entrepreneurship?

Would you believe, poverty?

The slums of the world apparently are the latest El Dorado. Free enterprise has finagled a way to extract wealth from wealth's very antithesis, and the notion of making a profit while doing good has caught on among some of the world's most avant-garde entrepreneurs, including Jack Ma, a Chinese e-commerce tycoon. When asked in a recent television interview what idea excited him now, he offered this surprising answer: social service.