Invite colleagues
For those of us working in the Chinese Internet space we are very familiar of Alibaba and Jack Ma…. so when I came across a story in San Jose Mercury News about Alibaba my curiosity was quickly sparked.
The story claims that all the top executives from Taobao are in the Valley looking for a partner to launch an American version of its online retail store, which is sometimes compared to China’s eBay. They also will travel to Seattle and New York City. The companies they are visiting include Google, Yahoo, Amazon.com. and even eBay…. so looks like Jack is serious about getting into the US….
It was reported in the US press that Jack Ma, the founder of 10-year-old Hangzhou-based Alibaba Group, the parent company of Taobao, said in an interview that he hopes to build a base in United States to expand the Internet retail company and its online payment system, Alipay.com.
“This is something we have been thinking about for two years — how we can do something in the States, how we can do something in Europe,” Ma said. ”This is the right time. We think the next couple of months would be good if we get a chance to expand. That’s why we are pretty open to looking for partners.”
Such a move would face numerous obstacles, not least of which is this country’s deep recession. But Ma, who has been called the godfather of China’s Internet, has never been one to back down from a challenge.
“The year 2009 is definitely a good year,” he said confidently… Good on ya, Jack… just walk tall and don’t make us in China’s Internet industry look to naive by association….
As background, online sales grew 130 percent in China in 2008, according to iResearch. 1% of Taobao’s page views come from the United States
I look forward to monitoring this development with interest.
Written on Wednesday, 02 September 2009 12:54 by Matt McDougall
