The World Trade Organization is currently hosting its 40th Geneva Week in Switzerland, with an emphasis on small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Alibaba.com (BABA) president Kuo Zhang joins Wealth! to discuss his company's initiatives to support these enterprises globally.
Zhang highlights Alibaba's commitment to serving SMEs, catering to sellers and buyers. The platform has a network of over 200,000 suppliers and more than 50 million buyers worldwide. He emphasizes Alibaba's role in providing tools and platforms "to transform the way they do business."
Recognizing SMEs as "the backbones of the global business," Zhang outlines Alibaba's strategy to leverage digital tools "to empower" these enterprises across the globe, including developing regions in Africa and Asia. Zhang reveals that Alibaba is "heavily investing on the technology side" of AI with two primary objectives: enhancing platform efficiency for both sellers and buyers, and evolving the platform from "a sourcing engine to a creative engine." These advancements aim to streamline workflows for SMEs and "build trust between each other" on Alibaba.com.
Addressing concerns about the impact of global elections on their business operations, Zhang emphasizes Alibaba's focus on "things that do not change." This includes their core SME customer base, products, target markets, and manufacturers. "We are back to the fundamentals," Zhang told Yahoo Finance, adding, "These are things we think are not going to change for a hundred years, so that's where we are focusing."
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This post was written by Angel Smith
Editor's note this post has been updated to correct Mr. Zhang's title and reflect that Alibaba's platform has more than 50 million buyers worldwide.