中国将成为美国中小企业的下一个希望

 阿里巴巴董事局主席 马云
 

随着人们越来越来越了解阿里巴巴，自然的，大家会想知道我们的国际战略，特别是好奇我们公司在美国市场的战略。

我们的美国战略非常简单和清晰：我们要帮助尽可能多的美国创业者，男性和女性的中小企业家，各种规模的品牌和公司，帮助他们的产品向不断增长的中国消费阶层销售。这会让在中国消费者获得他们想购买的美国产品，同时，也在美国创造就业，增加美国对中国的出口。

这周我会来到美国，和创业者们，小企业主和其他潜在合作伙伴一起，讨论我们如何合作，让他们的产品更加便捷的向中国消费者出售。

我 和创业者在一起的时候，就像回家一样。16年前我和一群朋友一起（在家里）创立了阿里巴巴集团，相信我们能够用科技让障碍消除，给所有想参加全球贸易的人 一个成功的机会。我们为小人物奋斗，我们连接买家和卖家，为激动人心的创业者们提供他们需要的一切，来发展他们的企业——包括融资、支付、物流、营销和分 析，甚至云计算。今天，在中国有超过900万的创业者在阿里巴巴的零售平台上运营自己的小企业，我们的生态系统创造了1400万的工作岗位。

阿里巴巴创于中国，为世界而生。现在正是我们进一步努力的大好时机，把西方的中小企业和东方最大，增长最快的市场连接起来。

我 们这个让美国中小企业向中国出售产品的战略，无疑对很多人来说是一个意外。因为许多人对中国的看法停留在过去。今天的中国和十年前的中国完全不同，第一波 全球化浪潮创造了中国工薪阶层，其后的增长创造了一个欣欣向荣的中产阶层。事实上，今天中国的中产阶层人数和美国人口数相当——并且在7年后将会翻番。这 是一个巨大的新消费阶层，有着足够的收入可以支配，但是他们花在哪里，是这个计划中对美国中小企业重要的部分。

纵 观全局，一个需要记住的事实是，在中国我们没有像美国那样常见的，广泛的零售基础设施。没有全国性的零售连锁机构，每百万人所拥有的购物中心数目更少—— 是美国的十分之一。随着接入互联网的大规模普及和诸如阿里巴巴提供的这类在线市场的普及，中国消费者能够跨越式的获得个人化购物体验，广泛的进行网络购 物。

用 一组数字感受一下规模有多大。中国消费者在2014年花费了4400亿美元，到2019年这个数字将会上升到1万亿美元。而在线零售将三倍于总消费的增长 速度，其中一半的销售额来自三线城市或者更深入的地区。阿里巴巴的生态系统中有3.5亿的活跃买家，在今年三月单月我们有2.94亿在移动平台上的活跃买 家。我们的物流网络覆盖1800个物流中心，每天处理超过3000万的包裹，其中在双十一——中国最大的购物狂欢节单，处理了2780万个包裹。

此 外，中国中产阶层的购物者们上网消费，不仅仅是为了买到中国产品，更是特别希望买到全球产品。事实上，中国网上消费者的跨境购物自从2010年以来增长了 10倍，从不到20亿美元增长到了2014年的200亿美元。这个市场不仅仅包括了奢侈品服装和配件。中国消费者在网上想买到各种各种的高品质产品，包括 生鲜，母婴和化妆品，而且他们希望从美国和欧洲获得。他们从阿拉斯加购买海鲜，从美国中西部购买猪肉，从罗德岛购买儿童玩具，从俄勒冈和巴尔的摩购买运动 装备。

我 们已经看到了跨境业务的初步成功。我特别自豪于我们和美国农民们的合作。在2013年，太平洋西北地区的车厘子农民通过阿里巴巴的平台向中国出售了180 吨车厘子。这掀起了一股中国的车厘子热潮，到2014年销量翻三倍达到了600吨。这一成功完全可以在从食品，旅游再到消费产品的各个领域复制。

携 起手来，我们有着许多的工作可以做。这不会容易，将会要求我们持续解决大量的困难问题，包括假货。我们将会致力于为美国所有规模的企业打开中国市场。我相 信电子商务的力量，将会在全球范围内消除障碍，让即便是最小的企业，也能触及消费者，无论他们在何方，无论他们在隔壁或在世界的另一头。

我 敬佩美国创业者，相信他们可以成为全世界的榜样。我是100%的中国制造，但美国对我并不陌生，我在西雅图的一次旅行中第一次发现了互联网，我从美国游客 那里学会了英语——正是因为当年里根总统对杭州历史性的访问，这些游客才来到中国，而杭州是我的故乡，阿里巴巴的总部。

我非常高兴本周来到美国，更重要的是，和美国中小企业和所有规模的公司合作。我们共同努力，可以为太平洋两岸的增长添砖加瓦。更美好的未来还在前方。

China: the next frontier for American small businesses

Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma

As people learn more about Alibaba Group, they naturally want to know about our international plans. They are especially curious about our company’s strategy for the U.S. market.

Our U.S. strategy is simple and clear: We want to help as many U.S. entrepreneurs, small businessmen and women, brands and companies as possible of all sizes sell their goods to a growing Chinese consumer class. This will help Chinese consumers get the American products they want to buy, and, in turn, will help create jobs in the U.S. and increase U.S. exports to China.

This week, I will travel to the United States to meet with entrepreneurs, small businessmen and women, and other potential partners to discuss how we can work together to make it easier for them to sell more of their products to Chinese consumers.

I feel most at home with entrepreneurs because a group of friends and I founded Alibaba Group 16 years ago believing that we could use technology to level the playing field, giving anyone who wanted to participate in global commerce a chance to succeed. We fight for the little guy. We connect buyers with sellers, and aspiring entrepreneurs with everything they need to start, run and grow a business – including financing, payments, logistics, marketing, analytics, and even cloud computing. Today, there are more than 9 million entrepreneurs running small businesses on Alibaba’s retail marketplaces in China and our ecosystem has generated 14 million jobs.

Alibaba Group was founded in China, but created for the world. The time is right for us to increase our efforts to connect small businesses in the West with the largest, fastest growing market in the East.

Our strategy to help American businesses sell to China will undoubtedly come as a surprise to many. This is because many view China through an outdated lens. Today’s China is virtually unrecognizable from the China of a decade ago. While the first wave of globalization created a large working class in China, this next wave of growth has created a thriving middle class. In fact, today’s Chinese middle class is equal in size to the entire U.S. population -- and it’s expected to double within seven years. This is an enormous class of new consumers, with plenty of disposable income to spend. But how they spend it is an important part of the story for U.S. small businesses.

Stepping back, it is important to remember that in China, we do not have the extensive brick-and-mortar retail infrastructure common in the U.S. There are no national retail chains to speak of, and fewer than one shopping mall per one million people – one-tenth the rate in America. With the widespread availability of Internet access and online marketplaces, like those provided by Alibaba, Chinese consumers have leapfrogged the in-person shopping experience and are shopping online in big numbers.

To give you a sense of the scale, Chinese shoppers spent $440 billion online in 2014, and this number is expected to rise to $1 trillion by 2019. Online retail is expected to grow at triple the rate as overall retail, with half of sales coming from 3rd tier cities and below. Alibaba has more than 350 million annual active buyers on our ecosystem, and in the month of March alone we had 294 million monthly active users on our mobile platforms. Our smart logistics network operates over 1,800 distribution centers and handles over 30 million packages a day, including processing a staggering 278 million packages on November 11, 2014, China’s largest annual shopping day.

Furthermore, middle class Chinese shoppers are going online not just for Chinese-made goods, but particularly for international products. In fact, cross-border purchases by China’s online shoppers grew ten-fold since 2010, from less than $2 billion to more than $20 billion in 2014. This market includes more than just imported luxury apparel and accessories. Chinese consumers are shopping online for high-quality goods of all kinds, including fresh food, baby products and cosmetics – and they want it from places like the United States and Europe. They are buying their seafood from Alaska; their pork from the Midwest; their children’s toys from Rhode Island; and their sports gear from Oregon and Baltimore.

We’ve already seen some early cross-border successes. I’m especially proud of our work with American farmers. In 2013, for example, cherry farmers in the Pacific Northwest sold 180 tons of cherries to China via Alibaba’s platform. This set off a cherry frenzy in China, and sales in 2014 tripled to 600 tons. This can be replicated for every day purchases from food, to travel and consumer goods.

Together, we have a great deal of work to do. This won’t be easy and it will require us to continue to take on many tough issues, including counterfeiting. We are committed to opening the Chinese market to U.S. businesses of all size and scale. I believe that the power of e-commerce can truly level the global playing field, making it possible for the smallest of businesses to reach their consumers wherever they may be – next door or on the other side of the world.

I admire America’s entrepreneurs and believe they serve as a strong role model for the world. While as a person I am 100% made in China, I feel a great kinship with America. I first discovered the Internet while on a trip to Seattle, and I actually learned to speak English from American tourists who were visiting China -- those tourists only came to China because of President Richard Nixon’s historic trip to Hangzhou, my hometown and Alibaba’s headquarters.

I’m excited to visit the U.S. this week, and more importantly to continue to work with American small businesses and companies of all sizes. Together we can fuel growth on both sides of the Pacific. Our best days together are yet to come.