Economics: Trade War Ruins Alibaba’s US Job Plans — Jack Ma
ECONOMICS — On Wednesday, a Chinese agency reported that Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma has stated that the company is unable to fulfill its 1 million jobs promise in the United States due to the worsening trade war.
Moreover, Ma has already flagged warnings that the US-China trade war could last decades. He even suggested that China should focus on the trade route in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Europe or what he called the “Silk Road.”
In 2016, Jack Ma met U.S. President Donald Trump and laid out the company’s plan to include one million small US businesses into its platform to sell to Chinese consumers over the next five years.
«This commitment is based on friendly China-U.S. cooperation and the rational and objective premise of bilateral trade. The current situation has already destroyed the original premise. There is no way to deliver the promise,” Ma said.
Although Ma didn’t specify about the implementation of the said plan, he expressed interest to invite American small businesses to sell on Alibaba marketplace Tmall and Taobao. He argued that each new business that joined in the platform would employ a person in handling extra sales.
Jack Ma’s comments unfazed investors. On Wednesday, the Chinese e-commerce giant’s shares closed up to 3.8%. They already lost 5.7% so far this year with the gains.
On Monday, Trump imposed further 10% tariffs on Chinese imports worth $200 billion and threatened that it will increase to $267 billion more next year if China retaliated.
As a response, China retaliated by imposing tariffs on US goods worth $60 billion later that day. However, it lessened the level of tariffs it will collect on the products.
«The U.S. like competition, China likes harmony; they’re two different cultures,» Ma said in an investor conference in Shanghai on Tuesday.
Economics: Amazon overtakes Verizon as the third US digital ad platform
The advertising business of Amazon.com is constantly growing across several of its properties and its profitability can be boosted by high-margin revenue.
According to eMarkerter, Amazon replaced Verizon a subsidiary Oath and neighboring tech giant Microsoft as the third digital ad platform in the United States. Meanwhile, Google and Facebook still remain as the top two players. Further, eMarketer forecasted that the ad business of Amazon will reach $4.6 billion in revenue from U.S. advertisers this year.
