Jack Ma, founder of China’s largest e-commerce company Alibaba, which created history with the biggest-ever IPO, is keen to work more with Indian businesses.
“We will invest more in India. We will work with Indian entrepreneurs and technologists to improve the relationship of the two nations,” he said.
Little was known of Jack Ma’s schedules and meetings in the over-48 hours that he spent here, till he addressed the India-China (ZHEJIANG) Business Cooperation Conference on Wednesday.
Jack Ma, who has a fortune of $30 billion, founded Alibaba in 1999 in Hangzhou, capital of East China’s Zhejiang Province.
Engagement with India In his short address, Jack Ma touched upon some key points, including more engagement with Indian business. Though he did not elaborate on what kind of business tie-ups he would look for or what changes he would seek in India's e-commerce policy, Jack Ma said Alibaba already has high number of small Indian businesses selling their products to over four lakh Chinese customers — from spices and chocolates to tea.
Looking to globalise “We have been working on a business-to-business basis with Indian companies for over 15 years. Today, Indian companies are the second-largest sellers on Alibaba, behind Chinese firms,” he said. “At Alibaba, we want to globalise going into the future. I strongly believe that the Internet is a young business for young people and right now we have a great opportunity for the entrepreneurs of India and China to work together.”
While neither Snapdeal nor Alibaba commented on the speculated meeting between Jack Ma and Kunal Bahl, founder of Snapdeal, sources said there was a brief chat over phone.
The speculation about the meeting arose because both share a common investor — SoftBank.
A person privy to the development indicated that “Ma was curious to meet and know more about Snapdeal, but the schedule didn’t let it happen.”
Asked if a deal was brewing between the two, the person said, “There is no deal on the horizon. The curiosity was more because of investment from SoftBank into Snapdeal. Jack Ma was also keen to know more about the Indian e-commerce business.”