阿里巴巴是美国小企业的天赐良机吗？

    中国电商巨头阿里巴巴（Alibaba）在纽约股票交易所的上市轰动全球。在第一个交易日之后，马云的个人资产达到180亿美元。大股东雅虎（Yahoo）也获利巨大，孙正义成了日本首富。阿里巴巴让它的投资者都获得了丰厚的回报，但这家公司的影响远不止于此。

    在这里，《财富》杂志想问一个问题：阿里巴巴将如何影响美国的小企业？业内专家的看法不一。有人说阿里巴巴为小企业提供了“天赐良机”。也有人持怀疑态度，因为企业主们还没有搞清楚阿里巴巴确切的经营模式。

    在本月初启动的IPO路演视频中，首席执行官马云表示：“我们阿里巴巴就是为‘小人物’奋斗，为小企业主们和他们的客户努力工作。”在提交的监管文件中，他写道：“我们的设想非常简单，就是通过互联网技术解决小企业主们的问题，帮助他们成长。”

    事实确实如此吗？为在线零售商提供咨询服务的Ripen eCommerce公司首席执行官迈克尔•都铎认同这种说法。他在接受《财富》采访时称：阿里巴巴会有助于“企业开辟中国市场”。

    都铎指出，阿里巴巴集团经营四种独立类型的服务，每种服务都可以为小企业分享中国市场的大蛋糕提供不同的机会。支付宝（Alipay）提供类似Paypal的支付服务，但其第三方托管功能是后者所没有的。天猫商城（Tmall）类似于亚马逊（Amazon），零售商可向客户直接销售。淘宝网（Taobao）则和eBay类似。

    最后，阿里巴巴网站Alibaba.com自称是全球最大规模的企业贸易（B2B）批发商。该网站拥有730万家供应商，其中600万家来自中国，这一称号应该当之无愧。

    都铎指出，将这些服务融合起来，就可以为那些“缺乏在中国市场竞争资源”的小企业提供帮助。他同时也提出，企业经营者需要考虑如何将产品“绕过半个地球”运到中国的问题。

    海顿•辛普森是防网络欺诈公司NetNames的产品总监，他在邮件中指出：阿里巴巴在美国的潜力无可限量。辛普森提到，根据Alexa的网站排名，淘宝网是全球访问量排名在第11位的网站，仅比亚马逊低三个位次。

    辛普森说：“无论是利用现有的任何一个平台，还是针对美国市场建立一个专门的平台，阿里巴巴都足以实现对美国市场的高度渗透——这一点无可置疑。”

    不过阿里不同的产品对于美国企业经营者来讲可能是把双刃剑。各种平台不同的服务可能会带来混淆，尤其他们正在绞尽脑汁试图搞清楚阿里巴巴究竟是什么。事实上，根据一篇最新的《财富》文章，就连投资者也对此有点迷惑。

    科尔尼（A.T.Kearney）是一家全球性的管理咨询公司，其媒体及零售部门主管科沙•戈达说，阿里巴巴尽管“大张旗鼓，却还算不上家喻户晓。这可能会带来一些品牌认知上的混乱，他们必须尽快让人熟悉起来。”

    戈达还表示，可能存在于美国部分小企业主中间的一个障碍是，为了表现爱国主义而不向中国出售产品，也不从阿里巴巴或淘宝网上订购商品。

    Chinese e-commerce colossus Alibaba finished its first blockbuster day trading on the New York Stock Exchange Friday by making Jack Ma an $18 billion man. It also helped Yahoo score huge profits on its stake in the company and made Masayoshi Son Japan’s richest man. But the company’s impact will be felt far beyond making it investors wealthy.

    So Fortune asked the question: How will Alibaba impact small businesses in the U.S.? Expert responses ranged from it being a “golden opportunity” to skepticism because of confusion by business owners about what exactly Alibaba does.

    “At Alibaba, we fight for the little guy, the small businessmen and women and their customers,” CEO Jack Ma said in a video for potential investors earlier this month. In a regulatory filing, he wrote that “Our proposition is simple: we want to help small businesses grow by solving their problems through Internet technology.”

    But is that actually the case? Michael Tudor, the CEO of Ripen eCommerce, a consulting firm for online retailers, believes so. He told Fortune that the company will help businesses “establish themselves in the Chinese market.”

    The Alibaba Group contains four separate services, explained Tudor, each with different opportunities for small business owners looking to make gains in China. There’s Alipay, a PayPal-like business which provides an escrow service, unlike its U.S. counterpart. Then there’s TMall which resembles Amazon by letting retailers sell directly to consumers. Another arm, Taobao, is similar to eBay .

    Finally, there’s Alibaba.com, which describes itself as the world’s largest business-to-business wholesaler. With a whopping 7.3 million suppliers, including six million from China, there’s little room for debate.

    Together, these services can help small business owners “who don’t have the resources to meet the challenges of the Chinese market,” according to Tudor. At the same time, the owners will need to figure out a way to ship the products “half way around the world” themselves, said Tudor.

    Haydn Simpson, a product director at NetNames, a company that protects clients from online fraud, explained via email that that Alibaba’s potential reach into the U.S. is enormous. He pointed out that Taobao.com is the eleventh most visited site in the world, only three spots behind Amazon, according to online measurement firm Alexa.

    “There is no reason why – using one of its existing platforms or setting up one specifically for the US market – Alibaba Group cannot achieve significant penetration in the U.S.,” Simpson said.

    But the various product may also be a double-edged sword for U.S. business owners. The different services could be confusing to them, especially as they try to wrap their heads around what Alibaba actually is. In fact, even investors appear to be confused, according to a recent Fortune article.

    Despite all the “fanfare, it’s still not a household name,” said KoshaGada, a principal in the media and retail practices of A.T. Kearney, a global management consulting firm. “There might be a little bit of brand confusion, and they’ll have to familiarize themselves.”

    Gada also said there may be a barrier for small business owners in the U.S. who want to appear patriotic and not sell to China or place orders on Alibaba.com or Taobao.com.