Jack Ma, the founder of China-based E-commerce group Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd., has disclosed that he is interested in collaborating with Apple on mobile payments.
On Monday, Oct. 27, at the Wall Street Journal's Digital Live conference in California, Alibaba's CEO revealed his interest in working with Apple, which has recently launched the Apple Pay mobile wallet.
Ma revealed that he respected Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, tremendously. When questioned on a tie-up between Alipay and Apple Pay, Ma hoped that the two companies could "do something together." However, he cautioned that the collaboration should be a "marriage" which both the companies want.
Alibaba Group recently raised nearly $25 billion in its IPO in the U.S. The company trades in NYSE under "BABA."
Alibaba, the E-commerce platform, currently has 100 million visitors each day according to Jack Ma. He also divulged that the online payment solution Alipay, which is owned by Alibaba Group, is now the third-biggest payment system in the globe, trailing behind Visa and MasterCard.
Despite handling way more E-commerce transaction than rivals eBay and Amazon, currently, Alibaba does not have a very strong presence amid retail consumers in the U.S. Ma is clear that he wants to target Chinese consumers for the time being.
However, the founder would like to reverse the decade-long trend of goods flow and retail European and American products in home country China.
Alibaba Group has several plans to entice the 80 million customers who simply visit Alibaba, but do not make a purchase. The company intends to get into video creation for the purpose of luring them.
Ma intends to travel to several Hollywood studios during his visit for the purpose of allegedly striking content deals.
"I want to come here looking for partners," said Ma.
He also forecasts that China would go on to become the biggest movie market in the world.
Alibaba Group already has e-retailer 11Main on board and the company is looking to invest in the U.S. even in the future.
