As the World Trade Organization currently hosts its 40th Geneva Week in Switzerland, focusing on small and medium-sized enterprises, Alibaba Group (BABA) President Kuo Zhang appears on Wealth! to discuss the company's efforts to support these businesses globally.
Zhang emphasized Alibaba's focus on serving small and medium-sized businesses and meeting the needs of sellers and buyers. The platform has a network of more than 200,000 suppliers and more than 15 million buyers around the world. Zhang highlighted Alibaba's role in providing tools and platforms that “change the way business is done.”
Recognizing SMEs as the “backbone of global business,” Zhang outlined Alibaba's strategy to leverage digital tools to “empower” SMEs around the world, including in developing regions of Africa and Asia. Zhang revealed that Alibaba is “investing heavily in the technology side” of AI with two main objectives: to increase the efficiency of the platform for both sellers and buyers, and to evolve the platform “from a procurement engine to a creation engine.” These advancements aim to streamline workflows for SMEs and “build mutual trust” on Alibaba.com.
Regarding concerns about the impact of global elections on Alibaba's business operations, Zhang stressed that Alibaba is focusing on “things that won't change,” including its core small business customer base, its products, target markets and manufacturers. “We've gone back to basics,” Zhang told Yahoo Finance, adding, “These are things that aren't going to change for 100 years, and that's what we're focused on.”
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This post Angel Smith
Video Transcript
The World Trade Organization, known locally as the WTO, kicked off its 40th Geneva Week on Tuesday.
This is a twice-yearly week-long event where business leaders and executives travel to Geneva, Switzerland to discuss the latest developments in global trade.
Now, one of the hot topics this year is the potential of small and medium-sized enterprises, also known as M SMEs. Currently, M SMEs account for 90% of businesses, over 70% of employment and 50% of GDP worldwide, and many experts consider these enterprises to be the backbone of many global economies.
Joining us live from the conference, exclusive to Yahoo Finance, is Zhang, president of alibaba.com.
I'm glad you came.
And just to take a moment away from the ongoing discussion, thank you for joining us on Yahoo Finance.
From the conversations you're having, what are international business leaders pledging to do to protect the growth of small businesses?
of course.
Hello, this is a quote from alibaba.com. I'm in Geneva right now, and we're actually discussing an ongoing program between the WTO S and the TCS to help support, develop and strengthen small and medium-sized enterprises. So I'm going to tell you a little bit about our business, alibaba.com.
The company was founded by Jack Ma in 1999, and from the beginning, it has focused on working for and serving small and medium-sized enterprises – small and medium-sized enterprises – for both sellers and buyers.
actually.
Currently, we serve over 200,000 suppliers worldwide and also serve as buyers to over 50 million SMEs worldwide.
So, in simple terms, we use all the digital tools to help you transform the way you do business and lower the barriers to entry on our global platform.
Judging from your interactions on Alibaba.com, how healthy do you think small businesses are around the world?
So, let me start by giving you an example. When Alibaba was founded in 1999, if you look at the numbers, you said that 50% of the GDP of global trade was accounted for by small and medium-sized enterprises. But in China at that time, in 1999, that number was actually less than 2%.
In fact, in China, over 62% of the GDP of world trade is accounted for by SMEs.Over the past 20 to 25 years, SMEs have become an increasingly powerful force globally and are now the backbone of global business.
And the same thing is happening all over the world: in Europe, in the United States, in the developing world, and in Asia, Latin America, Africa, and elsewhere.
So we are empowering them with digital tools.
As some large corporations and multi-billion dollar conglomerates invest heavily in everything from blockchain to generative AI to stay technologically cutting edge, how capable are SMEs and MSMEs to achieve digital transformation?
Yes, of course.
What we are actually doing is an example of AI.
So what we're doing is democratizing AI.
So we're investing heavily in other aspects of technology and we want to use that technology to empower small and medium-sized businesses.
So this year, we are focusing on two things in particular.
The first is AI, which will drive efficiency for both buyers and sellers and transform the platform from a kind of sourcing engine into a creative engine.
The other is upgrading the supply chain, which is called Alibaba Guarantee.
It means when a buyer purchases or sources products from alibaba.com.
We handle all logistics for additional payment financing services and after-sales services.
This significantly lowers barriers and helps build trust between SMEs.
This is basically what we do.
Quote.
Especially given the election environment this year, where more than half the world will be participating in the election in some form, that could change, and it makes you wonder what the globalization could look like that could also impact companies like alibaba.com.
How are you prepared to face the outcome of these elections, knowing that they will impact not only your key customers – consumers and the end users of your products – but also other small and medium-sized businesses?
look.
So, from our perspective, actually, you know, alibaba.com has been funded for over 25 years.
So there will be a lot of elections and a lot of change during this period.
And the latest change, or challenge, is the pandemic.
In fact, the post-pandemic period has proven to be a golden opportunity for an increasing number of SMEs to embrace digitalisation and transform.
And you're talking about elections, but the things we're looking at are the things that don't actually change.
For example, in a small business, let’s say you’re an employee and you want to create something and build your own brand to sell.
There are many things you need to focus on: what product to make, who are your customers, what is your target market, how to find the best partner to manufacture it at the best price, what kind of employees to hire, etc.
And then finally, there's probably a tax, and the tax rate is part of the tax.
So, there are many things to consider but what brings us back to basics is the demand for supplies and how to provide a variety of supplies at high quality at competitive prices and delivery times to all buyers.
And we'll continue to do that, improving our tools to help small businesses and make it easier to do business anywhere.
We think these things will remain the same for 100 years.
So, the thing we're looking at is, if the tariffs go up further, will that have a net impact on your business?
First of all, we are like a platform that supports global supply, so our supply doesn't just come from one country, we now have supplies from 200 countries. For example, in Europe, we have wine, fashion, machinery, and various tools from Germany, France, Italy.
We also have many suppliers from Southeast Asia.
The first and second part is, as I said, the fundamental rule of world trade is supply and demand.
So it's kind of a competitive advantage on the supplier side to always find better supplies at better prices and add that up.
What we do is lower the barriers and make it easier for people to go global and do business with each other.
This is essentially what they do and what we focus on.
Statement by Quo Zhang, President of Alibaba.com.
Thank you so much for taking the time to join us today.
Thank you very much.
thank you.
