Alibaba’s Jack Ma Plans to Create 1 Million US Jobs

On Monday, Donald Trump met with China’s Alibaba Group’s executive chairman Jack Ma.

Following a 40 minute meeting with President-elect Donald Trump, Jack Ma revealed his plan to create one million jobs in the U.S. in the next five years. How does Ma plan on doing this? The executive chairman explained that he wants to help small businesses sell their products in China.

Trump followed up by saying, “we had a great meeting…and (he’s) a great, great entrepreneur, one of the best in the world, and he loves this country, and he loves China.” Trump added that Jack Ma plans on doing “great things for small businesses”.

Alibaba Group is an ecommerce company based in China that works as a platform to deliver services to people. Similar to how Amazon delivers products, Alibaba Group is the Chinese version of the American e-commerce giant. In 2012, the company had over $100 billion sales. In 2013, the company accounted for 60% of all mail delivered in China. By 2014, Alibaba Group accounted for 80% of the country’s online sales.

Alibaba
Stock Photo: New York City, USA – September 19, 2014: People taking photos at the New York Stock Exchange marking the Initial Public Offering of the e commerce company the Alibaba Group in New York City. (Christopher Penler / Shutterstock.com)

But, the biggest day for the e-commerce company takes place on China’s Singles’ Day, which takes place on November 11th. This year, Alibaba Group earned a record breaking $20 billion in sales on Singles’ Day alone.

However, it is important to point out that the U.S. has not always had a welcoming relationship with Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group. Last year the U.S. Trade Representative’s put one of Alibaba Group’s e-commerce websites, Taobao, on the government’s black list of “notorious marketplaces”. Calling the website a known platform for the sale of counterfeit products. Apparently, Taobao did not effectively stop the sale of fake items that were in violation of intellectual property rights. With that being said, despite being blacklisted, the U.S. did not financially penalize Alibaba Group.