Jack Ma proposes to build a global version of Taobao to break trade barriers

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba hopes to consult with one to two countries after the G20 summit in September to discuss plans to establish a global e-commerce platform. Alibaba founder and chairman of the board of directors, Jack Ma said that this will help break trade barriers.

Jack Ma said he hopes that global companies such as competitors, Amazon, can cooperate to create new e-commerce platforms and connect small and medium-sized enterprises around the world.

Jack Ma recently said in Beijing that Amazon has done a lot of global trade and Alibaba respects the company very much. It would be great if the two sides can cooperate, but he doesn't know whether Amazon agrees with his concept.

At the Boao Forum for Asia in March this year, Jack Ma first proposed the concept of creating a global e-commerce platform. Since then, he has been lobbying companies and governments on other occasions, including the G20 Business Summit (B20), attended by G20 business representatives.

Jack Ma said that the company is setting up a team to focus on researching rules applicable to the platform, including tariffs and logistics. Since many companies from different countries will be involved, he expects the relevant standards to be quite complex.

He said that if a president of a country appreciates the concept and asks them to submit a plan, they cannot be empty-handed, so the company is setting up an internal group to prepare the rules and regulations within the plan.

Jack Ma hopes to discuss this plan with one or two countries after the G20 and B20 summit held in Hangzhou in September to test his reaction.

He revealed that the new platform is intended to lower trade barriers, but unlike the World Trade Organization, the platform will be organized by enterprises with the support of the government.

Jack Ma said he understood the difficulties and would be willing to invest decades of hard work in order to realize his vision.

He said the new global e-commerce platform will be an open platform involving many countries and many people, and one of the well-known problems will be setting the rules of the game because the rules will be very complicated.

Jack Ma said that it may take 20 or 30 years to see results in the new platform, and it can be foreseen that there will be many challenges in the future.

He said the new platform is not necessarily owned by Alibaba, but the company wants to participate in the construction work.

Jack Ma compared the work of creating a platform to a relay race, where Alibaba runs the first ball, but it will not complete all four balls, but will leave it to others to follow up.