Just as Chinese president Xi Jinping is arriving in UK, there’s a bit of news that concerns both technology and the UK-China relationship. It would appear that British PM, David Cameron has decided to hire Alibaba founder Jack Ma as economical and business advisor.
Mr Ma is the executive chairman of the Alibaba Group and a very respected figure in the tech world in China. He will be joining the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Group and will provide his expertize on getting the small and mid level businesses in UK to boost their exports to China. They will be using Chinese platforms such as Alibaba to improve their exports, it would seem.
Alibaba is a Chinese e-commerce company, that provides both consumer to consumer and business to consumer sales. It was valued at over 25 billion dollars last year and Jack Ma founded it in his apartment, together with 17 friends in 1999. It has since grown to a giant firm, that has its own mobile OS, Yun OS and its own online payment service, Alipay.
Keep in mind that Jack Ma’s involvement with the advisor group is not paid and the group of advisors has over a dozen members, all chairmen of big companies.
via ithome.com
