马云喊话美国商界：别紧张，阿里巴巴与亚马逊不同

    本周，阿里巴巴创始人马云在纽约发表演讲称，阿里巴巴对美国市场志存高远，但并没有把自己看成是亚马逊的仇敌。相反，他对这家中国电子商务巨头的定位是——成为希望向中国出售产品的美国小企业的盟友。

    据该公司官方发布的演讲稿显示，在这场纽约经济俱乐部的演讲中，马云承认，许多人对于阿里巴巴在美国的动作非常好奇。

    “许多人问：你们会来美国吗？如果来美国，你们是打算入侵美国吗？马云你什么时候来和亚马逊竞争？什么时候来和eBay竞争？其实，我对eBay和亚马逊抱有敬仰之心。而我来这里的目的，也就是阿里巴巴的下一步战略，是帮助美国的小企业走进中国，帮助他们将产品卖到中国。”

    他还表示，与亚马逊不同，阿里巴巴并不销售自己的产品，而是为第三方产品销售提供便利；阿里巴巴不送快递，而是与提供快递服务的第三方公司合作；阿里巴巴帮忙管理库存，但并没有自己的仓库。

    当然，阿里巴巴与亚马逊之间确实存在相似之处，而且不容忽视。亚马逊从一家在线书店起家，现在其销售的商品几乎囊括了所有类别。亚马逊主宰了美国的电子商务。此外，亚马逊在2006年推出了规模庞大的云计算业务亚马逊网络服务，对外销售闲置的计算与存储容量。

    阿里巴巴也在通过阿里云开展云计算业务，并在硅谷新建一个数据中心，且与Equinix达成了合作，希望扩大其在美国的影响力。马云提到，公司正在将其电子商务基础设施全球化，包括在全球范围内为小企业提供支付工具和物流中心。马云在美国扩大阿里巴巴影响力的同时，亚马逊也在中国做着同样的事情。

    阿里巴巴去年的全球收入为3,900亿美元，马云希望公司能够在明年超过沃尔玛。沃尔玛截至当前12个月的收入为4,855亿美元。目前，阿里巴巴的业务仅有2%来自海外市场，马云的目标是将这一比例扩大到40%，但他并未提出具体的时间表。

    随着中美两国在商业与政治领域的关系日益紧张，我们不难理解马云为什么希望缓和紧张局面，将阿里巴巴宣传为美国企业主的朋友。据《政客》杂志报道，阿里巴巴将任命前通用电气金融服务公司高管、小布什前总统的助手裘恩瑞担任公司国际政府事务总监。他将负责在首府华盛顿帮助阿里巴巴巩固美国的地位。

    接下来，马云将继续在芝加哥的美国之旅，与美国运通CEO肯•查劳尔特同台交流。（财富中文网）

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

    Alibaba has big designs on the U.S. market but does not see itself as the anti-Amazon, company founder Jack Ma said Tuesday. Instead, he positioned the Chinese e-commerce giant as an ally to small businesses in the U.S. looking to sell products in China.

    There is a lot of curiosity about Alibaba’splay in the U.S., Ma acknowledged during a speech at the Economic Club of New York, according to a transcript sent by the company.

    “People say ‘well are you going to come? When are you going to come to invade America? When am I going to compete with Amazon ? When am I going to compete with eBay ? Well I would say we show great respect for eBay and Amazon. But I think the opportunity and the, the strategy for us is helping small business in America go to China, sell their products to China,”

    He also argued that, unlike Amazon, Alibaba does not sell its own products but expedites the sale of third-party products; it does not deliver packages but works with third-party companies who do; and it manages, but does not own, warehouses.

    Still, there are similarities between Alibaba and Amazon that are too big to ignore. Amazon.com started as an online book store, but now sells nearly everything under the sun. It dominates e-commerce in the U.S. It also fields Amazon Web Services, a huge cloud computing business that it started in 2006 to sell off excess computing and storage capacity.

    Alibaba is also in the cloud computing business via its Aliyun unit, and is extending that presence into the U.S. via a new data center in Silicon Valley and a partnership withEquinix . Ma noted that the company is globalizing that infrastructure, its payment system, and logistics for use by small businesses globally. While Ma is building up Alibaba’s presence in the U.S., Amazon is doing the same in China.

    Alibaba’s worldwide revenue last year was $390 billion and he hopes the company will eclipse Walmart in that respect next year. Walmart’s trailing 12- month revenue is $485.5 billion. Currently 2% of Alibaba’s business comes from outside China, and Ma’s goal is to boost that to 40%, although he did not say by when.

    Given the increasingly testy relationship between the U.S. and China, both in commerce and politics, it’s easy to see why Ma wants to smooth things over and promote Alibaba as a friend to U.S. business owners. According to Politico, Alibaba is about to name Eric Pelletier, a former GE Capital exec and aide to former President George W. Bush, as head of international governmental affairs. He will be working out of Washington D.C, further cementing Alibaba’s foothold in the U.S.

    Ma will continue his U.S. road trip in Chicago today, speaking on stage with American Express CEO Ken Chenault.