Jack Ma speaks to the audience at The Economic Club of New York on June 9, 2015. (Photo : Business Insider/Reuters)
Alibaba is not going to “invade” America and take on Amazon, the company’s founder and CEO Jack Ma said in a speech Tuesday at the The Economic Club of New York.
Ma is in New York this week to meet leaders of select brands, seeking to entice American businesses to sell their goods in China and to "help dispel misconceptions" about his company, according to spokesman Greg Jenkins.
In his speech, Ma said that he is often asked when Alibaba is going to enter the U.S. market.
"When are you going to come to invade America? When are you going to compete with Amazon? When are you going to compete with eBay? Well, we show great respect to eBay and Amazon," Ma said. "But, I think the opportunity--and the strategy--for us is helping small businesses in America go to China, sell their products in China."
"We're not coming here to compete," he added.
Ma noted that China's middle class is nearly the same size as the entire population of the U.S., and that it makes sense for Alibaba to focus on its Taobao and Tmall (from which Alibaba earns most of its revenue) and Chinese consumers.
"We think in 10 years, more than half [a] billion Chinese people will be middle class," he added.
Pitching China's middle class to American businesses is not new for Ma and his company. In 2013, Tmall launched a special promotion that allowed small U.S. businesses to sell fresh foods (such as Alaskan salmon) directly to Chinese consumers. And in the previous summer, Alibaba introduced 11Main.com, a small direct-to-consumer U.S. portal of Internet storefronts for smaller businesses.
Ma's speech is seen by insiders as an attempt to fend off American unease over Alibaba's intentions. In the past year, a political attack ad broadcast claimed that Alibaba "will decimate our local retailers." The ad was funded by a group that includes U.S. retail firms like Best Buy, Target and JC Penney.
