Jack Ma to work with Apple on online payments
- By Wu Jin
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E-mail China.org.cn, October 29, 2014
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Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Service, introduces Apple Pay during an Apple event at the Flint Center in Cupertino, California, Sept 9, 2014.[File photo] |
Jack Ma, CEO of the Alibaba Group, now the richest person in China according to a 2014 Forbes ranking, said on Monday that he intends to work with Apple on a digital wallet business.
Ma conveyed his remark at the Global Technology Conference hosted by the Wall Street Journal Digital Live, saying he has immense interest in cooperating with Apple Inc. on an online payment business.
His goodwill gesture received a quick response from Tim Cook, the incumbent CEO of Apple Inc., who said Alibaba is a company that Apple is willing to partner with. The two executives have arranged to meet later this week for further negotiations.
"I hope we can do something together," Ma said at the conference. But he also warned that the cooperation should be a "marriage" with willingness from both sides.
With 300 million active online accounts, Alibaba has a huge online payments business. Apple also launched Apple Pay this month, its mobile wallet business.
With a colossal Initial Public Offering (IPO) in the United States in September, the market value of Alibaba has surged 40 percent to US$240 billion, surpassing the total value of Amazon.com and eBay. The gross trade volume of Taobao.com and Tianmao.com, two online businesses under Alibaba, reached US$300 billion from June 2013 to 2014.
As well as expanding in the mobile payment business, Ma has also entered California's movie industry, as he reached an agreement with Lions Gate Entertainment, a Canadian-American entertainment company, in July, to broadcast "Twilight" and "Mad Men" via Alibaba Set Top Box.
He also hopes to build connections between small-and-medium-sized businesses in China and the United States.
Chinese customers have a huge demand for overseas goods and China's economy will gradually shift its focus from exports to imports in the following decade, he said.
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