Jack Ma (left) met yesterday with Chui Sai On
Jack Ma, founder of Internet giant Alibaba, visited Macau yesterday. “The new phase of globalization belongs to young people and to small and medium enterprises [SMEs],” the entrepreneur said, after meeting the Chief Executive (CE) yesterday at Santa Sancha Palace.
Ma met with high-ranking officials and participated in a lecture at the University of Macau (UM). He was visiting the territory in his capacity as chairman of the Zhejiang General Businessmen Association, which was hosting its inauguration ceremony.
The Chinese tycoon advised local youth to seize opportunities here in the MSAR: “No such place in the world is like Macau which enjoys the advantages under the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ policy. […] Opportunities are everywhere especially with Macau’s own geographic location linking between mainland China and Portuguese-speaking countries, and more importantly, everyone has the opportunity to succeed as we are all living in an internet era,” he said.
Besides the dominant role played in the region by the gaming industry, Ma expressed confidence in Macau’s service industry and acknowledged that there is an “urgent need for the city to focus on helping and diversifying the small and medium sized firms.”
“We must now create opportunities for Macau young people and to encourage them to do business via the internet,” Alibaba’s CEO remarked.
At his meeting with Chui Sai On, Ma also accepted the position of consultant in both the Economic Development and the Science and Technology Committees of the MSAR.
asia’s richest man
Jack Ma recently overtook Dalian Wanda Group Co.’s Wang Jianlin as Asia’s richest man, after the e-commerce giant’s financial affiliate raised a record amount in its latest round of fundraising. Bloomberg estimates that Ma’s wealth reached around USD33.3 billion, according to the Billionaires Index, putting him ahead of Wang’s $32.7 billion and Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing’s $29.5 billion.
Ma is one of the people I admire most in the modern world. His, and the Ali story is amazing.
BUT did his advisers do even basic desk research on the Macau eCommerce environment?
1. The West mostly uses PayPal for basic eCommerce transactions on Ali equivalent sites like eBay. You cannot link a PayPal account to a Macau bank account. Macau is one of the few countries in the world where you effectively can’t trade on eBay.
2. The dominant eCommerce payment system in China is AliPay. Tightening of money laundering rules between Macau and China has made linking Macau bank accounts to AliPay virtually impossible
3. Macau has fantastically fast and cheap internet. Unfortunately the speed is fast to the ISP…. but test it to Western servers and it is at best slow.
Advantage Hong Kong.