Jack Ma discusses small business empowerment with Modi

31 Mar '15

2 min read

Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, during his second visit to India in just about four months.

In his meeting, Ma discussed with Modi how Alibaba can help small businesses in India, the Hangzhou-based company said.

Post-meeting, Modi tweeted “Had a very good meeting with Jack Ma”. In a separate tweet, Alibaba Group said, “Jack meets Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss how Alibaba can help empower small businesses in India.”

Ma, the richest person in China with wealth of around US$ 24.4 billion, could not meet Modi during his last India visit in November 2014.

During the visit, Ma had said that Alibaba was keen on investing more in India, and the group would work with Indian technology entrepreneurs as Internet could transform the country’s future.

“We will improve our platform and technology in the future. Internet is changing the world and Internet will change India too,” Ma had said at an event during the visit.

In terms of gross merchandise value (GMV), Alibaba was the world’s largest online and mobile commerce company in 2013, according to research firm IDC.

One of the key strategies of the Chinese Business-to-Business (B2B) e-commerce company is to have worldwide presence in order to help more small businesses across the globe.

In September 2014, Alibaba raised a record $25 billion through initial public offering (IPO) in the US.

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