Can US SMEs afford to log on to Alibaba?
"China … is a low priority due to our experiences with Chinese banking and business complexity," said the Baltimore businessman, who owns Mp3Car, a small company selling electronics on Amazon and eBay in the United States. "Our focus is on building in the US, where we're based, and in other rapidly expanding markets that are less complex to enter."
It's not ideal, but Jack Ma may be happy with that.
Ma, the chairman of Alibaba, traveled to New York and Chicago this month, giving speeches and writing newspaper opinion pieces to urge small and medium-sized enterprises in the United States to consider using his e-commerce platforms, Taobao and Tmall, to reach Chinese shoppers.
(Alibabafounder Jack Ma (center) rings the bell to open trading at the New York Stock Exchange on Sept 19.)