阿里巴巴CEO展望2010

There are three local motives driving China’s economy, export, infrastructure investment and domestic demand and consumption. First, the good news is the export will no longer be dragging China’s growth lag any more, but won’t be a drive. They will be flat, neutral. NO.2 if the infrastructure investment stopped, then the second engine switch off. While the third engine has not been switching on, that’s a problem. That’s why the Chinese central government decide to keep switching on the second engine even if the first engine become neutral. So the third engine we identify, the domestic demand and consumption is the biggest and most exciting opportunity for small business because small business has nothing to do with the stimulus plan.

Alibaba operates Yahoo China, so you’re obviously following the story of Google in China very closely. What is Alibaba’s position on censorship by the authorities of the Internet and freedom of expression in China.

We believe when you get access into any market, you should study the local regulations and law, and decide whether you get in or not get in. But once you get in, giving up is the biggest failure. So we studied the local law before we acquired Yahoo China’s operation, and we only continue Yahoo China’s operation where we believe we can manage the contents in line with the local law.

Do you see a big opportunity for your business in China if Google does go through with its threat to pull out?

We are not in the general search engine business at all, so we never expect that we can take benefits from any counterparts' mistakes or departure.

Over the next three years in the short term, medium term, what is going to be the growth markets? what are the priorities for Alibaba?

There is no reason we give up or reduce our attention in China. So next two or three years, the main focus is definitely, definitely China. But that doesn’t mean we didn’t prepare for new growth opportunities outside China. And the key markets outside China will always be US, Japan and India, so the top four key countries for Alibaba.com will be China, India, Japan, US.

In that order?

It’s very difficult to balance a buyer market and a seller market. China and India are almost equally important as a seller market and the US, Japan are equally important as a buy market. As a market place, if you can secure buyers and sellers, basically you secure them in the same market place, they will talk, they will do transactions and these four markets are very very important to make our market place work

Glossary:

lag: a delay or period of waiting between one event and a second event