Jack Ma, executive chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., has started his three-day visit to the United States on June 8, Monday, with the aim of attracting more businesses into Alibaba’s e-commerce ecosystem.
"Our U.S. strategy is quite simple and clear: We want to help U.S. entrepreneurs, small business owners, and brands and companies of all sizes sell their goods to the growing Chinese consumer class," Ma said in The Wall Street Journal article just before his trip to New York.
Ma said that China's middle class, almost equal in size to the entire U.S. population, has a growing interest for American products. He sees the growing number of online shoppers in China as an opportunity for U.S. companies to do business through Alibaba.
Ma added that Chinese middle-class consumers love cosmetics, baby products and fresh food, aside from luxury apparel and accessories.
Cross-border e-commerce purchases by China's online buyers grew from less than $2 billion in 2010 to more than $20 billion last year, according to eMarketer Inc, an Internet research firm.
Ma met with leaders of select global brands on June 8 and had scheduled a lunch meeting with members of the Economic Club of New York on June 9, Tuesday, in an effort to connect his company with U.S. entrepreneurs.
The Chinese billionaire also went to Chicago to meet with American Express Chief Executive Officer Ken Chenault and 300 business owners on June 10.
The report said that the trip is part of Alibaba's broad effort to show to U.S. companies how to enter the Chinese market and attract millions of Chinese.
Alibaba, a rival to Amazon Inc, has already succeeded in attracting a wealth of U.S. brands to its business-to-consumer Tmall platform, such as Costco Wholesale Corp. and Macy's Inc.