Posted on 07/03/2017 5:05:02 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Jack Ma, the man who turned Alibaba into China’s dominant e-commerce platform, now has his sights set on global domination.
Over the past year, Ma has spent more than 800 hours flying to dozens of countries, meeting business leaders and head of states to introduce his grand vision: small businesses from all corners of the world trading freely and securely on Alibaba’s platform. His goals are equally ambitious: Ma wants Alibaba to hit $1 trillion in gross merchandise value by 2020. By 2036, the company sees itself serving two billion customers, effectively becoming the world’s fifth largest economy, with sales eclipsed only by the GDP of the U.S., China, Japan and the EU.
But to sustain the near continuous 40% growth rate of Ma’s $300 billion empire, which centers on a marketplace connecting brands with buyers, globalization is seen as key . At home it faces heightened competition with the country’s second-largest shopping site, JD.com, which just posted record sales of $17.6 billion for its 6.18 shopping festival – an 18-day sales bonanza at the start of June to celebrate its June 18 anniversary. Alibaba’s e-commerce dominance isn’t under threat but it nonetheless sees a “growth bottleneck” and feels “globalization is better done now than later,” said Teng Bingsheng, a professor of strategic management at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in Beijing.....
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.