Alibaba has an app and spent time catching up. They brought what is like chinas twitter and internationally invested in snapchat. But what is important on ecommerce is i think i can have up to a hundred people, maybe two hundred, in my private group, but people are selling stuff this way. The tights guy or the umbrella guy can have a hundred people in the group. It is powerful because if my friend says these are the best umbrella i am more likely to do it. A town across the border from hong kong is a massive company. That is the main competition on ecommerce and this mobile arena. It is chinas google partly because google messed up by leaving prematuritprematuritpre. They didnt mead need to but they are not as innovative as they would like to be. And google struggled in ecommerce so they have aspects and headway. Everything you do in china you from your cellphone. You can order any kind of food, any kind of product will be with you normally within the hour, sometimes ten minutes. They have been investing in the otoo. Think of best buy, alibaba bought the equivalent of best buy, or invested in it because you need to merge on the offline commerce and stop blending with cell phones. The main competition in china is called alibaba 10 cents. Sometimes they gang up on by do. They dont like it. In china, uber is not doing very well. They are behind and the reason is alibaba and ten cent have proxy equivalent to uber. The competition was so intense they ended up merging them because at one point they were spending hundreds of millions a month on subsidizing so the patrons were being paid, the drivers was being paid and at one case, alibaba was offering a free crate of beer. It might have improved the driving on the roads. They merged. And by do which partnered with uber, you see alibaba and ten cent are investing in the main competitor lyft. Who uses lyft . And you like it. Uber is most people. But this debate or Competitive Landscape in the u. S. Is increasingly influenced by china and chaos versa. Vice. This a 3d global chess board. That is why the stakes are so high in his competition. This is Cross Marketing at work. She just sent me something on i am going to ask a totally pedestrian and simple total i dont know shit question which is this what is the weirdest thing you can buy on Alibaba Online . I am talking about weirdest, strangest thing. This is cspan; right . A toppled fart. Another guy was making earrings made from mosquitos. They were quite poplar. Mosquitos in a Jurassic Park foundation. He was a funny guy. The story about this guy, people think i like watching mosquitos and matching them. That is like matching snowflakes. You can outsource a break with your girlfriend or partner. It is not just products. We are too squared to break up and you get somebody to do it for you. You have a family function and are under pressure to show up with a date and we talk about the gay and lesbian world and there is horrible stories of a gay guy marrying a lesbian. But you could hire somebody to show up and just pretend. So you name it. China increasingly has an aging population partly due to the onechild policy. I am overdoing it here for the one child. There is a law, i think it is implemented. You probably know this. Or at least recommended. That refines if people dont visit their aging parents because, you know, chinese traditional have you visit your parents. You can hire someone to visit your parents. How great would that be if you didnt have to fly to buffalo at thanksgiving . It depends on how complimentary your parents are particularly if the chinese person shows up like me. I think he visited. Anything. You name it. If is legalish you can do it. Services have opened a new arena. That is just a reflection of i chinese society. Wild and crazy stuff is happening there. Hi, for those of us that dont follow china that closely there are couple impressions going around. One is that ping has pretty much continuous to exert a lot of influence, including in the area of using corruption to cleanup the system if you want to take one kind of headline. On the other hand it is clear that alibaba is leading in a different area that you used the phrase, a global situation, and brought globalization into that. Is there any interaction between the eco sphere of pings world and jack mas world . There is. Could you elaborate . It really a key part of the conclusion of the book like where we are heading with this. Can we have these heading in deferent direction worlds at the same time . We would not be having this discussion now so but much but the elements of nationalism. You just declared another holiday. September 15th is National Security awareness day. With the italian Prime Minister, jack declared september 9th is wine tasting day in china. The chinese is going to clear it out. We have consumerist china and it is time for National Security day china. I think of it this way. Alibaba is dominant in ecommerce today and sometimes has 7080 percent of the market. The area he has chosen to expand to, the biggest, are finance and media. Both of those are sectors where the state plays a very big role. I talked about jack creating this triangle with finance and logistics and ecommerce. Ali pay is a currency for digital things in china and essentially for everything. When jack launched a fund saying if you have money in your account you can put it in a fund and we will manage you and pay you 2 more than the state banks. They called it leftover treasury. A hundred billion went into that thing immediately and the banks were scared. They control trillions of yen and never experienced competition. They have been pushing back. If you go the bank, they will say that Alibaba Company is a startup. The banks are fighting back. Same in media. A lot of journalists are quitting. The way jack jokes, and i think the 78 quotes he makes it is probably this one. I think you have want to be successful they have to be wise, credible and audacious. Fall in love with the government, never marry them, but fall in love. If you marry the government you a polygamist because there are so many arms of the government. Jack confided in one year with 40,000 people and this could be the head, the bureau, the local mayor, but he cannot say no. He cannot meet everyone himicism. Where went on the tour and you have maps and people are proud and the chinese is proud of alibaba. The government points to this saying the china is moving toward a consumer driven economy and that is useful. Jacks story isnt a story but a strategy. His whole life is about it being trip entrepreneur and knowing the need. I dont know where the disconnect will happen. The Prime Minister of china, doesnt have much power, but he is a good friend of jack and often jack is in and out of the center of power talking about Internet Plus economy. It doesnt matter if jinping is calling the shots. We had actually met in 2000, i think. 99 even. We had not met since then. And you were at the u. S. Consulate in shanghai. We went to meet jack and his wife and i think she tried to sell us real estate. Do you have a mike . We will come back to you. I think we need it for the tv. It has been many years since j left china and i am unattached. But i read jack is involved in philanthr philanthropic pursuits and i am wondering if she is known for that in china . How does that resonate with the chine chinese . And any moral story for the way he conducted himself and businesses over the years and moving to more philanthropic work . Yes, moving with warren buffet, bill gates, and bill and melinda gates. Jack is innovating more effectively than the government of china is with these people. There is an element of moral authority and jack is inspired by tradition and dollars and these things. You can argue selfinterest because he talks about health care. They are investing in pharmaceutical companies but china has huge problems with pollution, aging population and jack wants to do something about it. In the u. S. It is easier to do something or to seem to be doing something. They make a huge mistake to help preserve the trap fisheries and the maple syrup. It is difficult to do Philanthropy Work in china. I heard about a millionaire bought items and they come out of the wood work. China is debating how to deal with ngos. We call them Nongovernment Organization in china because anything that is not the party is potentially a threat. So yes another example of jack pushing the envelope saying you need to change these things. And you probably know jet lee and they are leping reduce consumption of illegal wildlife. Ming has done things with saving sharks and new rhino horns. The government needs to adapt. You are right. I think this is his legacy mode now. Is there an element of selfinterest . Why not. But i think he genuinely cares. This gentlemen has been very patient. Yes. And then we will go behind. Thank you. Very interesting commentary. The government of china has been trying to move away from the export and import model and toward consumption for many years and seems to be doing it more successfully recently because exports are falling off a cliff. This model jack ma came up with a mass market model. Do you see it having a Significant Impact on shifting the demand in china to a more domestic oriented model . Or is this still too small a part to make that much of a difference . It is huge. Talking about grocery deliveries, over 50 online. In the u. S. , ecommerce is deserved. Offline retail was never too efficient. What can the Chinese Government do to encourage consumption . They can create the conditions for people to save less and spend more. It is an investment in National Security. The question is is the ecommerce space going to be significant enough to shift the economy . Or despite the billions and billions in money is it going to be just a small portion compared to the trillions of entire economy . I think the symbolism is useful. It does have a real impact in reducing the friction of people to spend money. It hasnt been easy to buy things. You talk about staterun stores. This is opening up markets and the big question is can they make the shift. There is a terrible situation with coal mines but if you dwi to another area you will have a different experience. There are many different realities. I think alibaba is trying to become different from the shift happening and that is good for them and seems to be good for the country. The vice chair said it is like gm. What is good for america is good for gm and vice versa. That is what alibaba is going for. I think this is about giving consumers trust, a sense of choice, and that is what has been powering chinese economic revolution. It is going to be a race against time. Back here. My question is someone that is concerned about the development and press freedom or lack there. What do you think jack mas intentions are with the South China Morning Post . Alibaba recently purchased the South China Morning Post in hong kong which is the major english paper. I met with jeff who purchased the washington post. That is not really an accurate comparison for jack because jack could have fought but did it for the company. And then you think about why is the company doing it. It is taking them into choppy waters. They have had rough times in the past with tension with the u. K. Hong kong is a divided society. I think joshua wong setup a new political policy so why would you wander into that. The faction mag gene magazines and other stakes. The company defended it by saying they are investing in the business. I would say they probably saved the paper because of the slow decline they got rid of the payroll and scrapped it. It is how china and the u. S. Interaction. So i dont know. I think it is too early to say. I dont think we will use it for tutorials. And the Panama Papers were not in that. And they were a columnist showing that. They were not in the new york times. It took a while for these if they were not participating in the release, anyway. Who knows. But it is still in the post so that would be dumb to say today in beijing nothing happened. But in beijing news is increasingly sensitive on domestic newspapers. People have been quitting and saying publically they want to quit. Weather is sensitive because you know it might be high pollution count today. I guess we will just have sports. That can be a thing. Or the panda at the zoo. I think you are right. I think it is a very low end and increasingly i have been speaking with last night what is a detearatiriorating climate. In certain aspects recently we see people wanting to leave. This is an issue for china. Can it become an independent nation if the talent is leaving . In new york, we are seeing more and more chinese sending their kids overseas. They are frustrated just like jack. Not that you have to be a genius in math but they want to study liberal arts. It is like a boiling pot that the government is hammering down the lid. The internet can be a release and social media allows people to vent and also maybe thread in serb sir circuses and gives them things to buy. It is a canary in the coal mine. Any comments . Yes, you do. Sorry. Hi, i should say we were in high school together. Yes, it is me. My french me. Basically alibaba is a marketplace. You are saying they are selling like crappy plastic bins originally and the chinese are trying to build this consumer based model. Do you see the emergence of like major brands emerging in china . There is already higher which makes things like whatever the problems they have. Do you think the emergence of Global Brands or at least powerful brands are they powerful brands within china . Do you think that is a model that could be expanding and could play a part in this expansion of the consumerbased society . Yeah, it is happening. You mentioned names. Hire. Some of these have more link do is the state and others are more private sector. There is an element of desire to shift. If you look on the back of your phone, made in china, designed in california. China wants to get along with that. They want to design in china. Quality is a major leading smartphone manufacturing. More Chinese Companies will have to come out. If they are just selling within china and there are established brands in china. A lot of Chinese Brands have to go oversea to find talent and market. The idea of the internet may create a new base to develop. That is the case with marketing and fan clubs and things to take on the nokia and apples even though they are lower priced phones. Chinese are frustrated, you know, name a chinese car. Volkswagon. But they have keeping the volvo name. I know they cant really create a good brand and sell ye. The logo is italian but they did buy the idea. So it is not like the japanese wave in the 80s where they just buy stuff and hope it works out. They are more strategic. But crazy things are happening. Two weeks ago the owner of the historia hotel was bought. There is also the sense among chinese entrepreneurs that they need to keep talent and brands. Club med is the Largest Insurance Company in portugal and the chairman went missing for a couple days and we dont know why still. So it is interesting. If china, like this is everything i heard about. The relationship between the government and private sector and companies. If china takes relations with the rest of the world, southeast asia, are not great. How does that help alibaba . The Chinese Government is having friction with the areas because of the maritime issues but alibaba isnt. Chapter 13 is the most interesting chapter in the book. I think that is a queue to wrap it up. I am happy to have you hear. Including friend i havent seen for many years and happy to sign and stay in touch. Find we on wee chat