Interview: Alibaba's CTO sees chance for non-American internet ecosystem

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Interview: Alibaba's CTO sees chance for non-American internet ecosystem

By Li Jizhi and Zhang Xuan (Xinhua) 12:48, November 17, 2013

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HELSINKI, Nov. 16 -- As the Slush conference, an annual startup event in Helsinki, attracted thousands more participants than last year, a top Chinese IT developer has seen the opportunity of emerging independent internet ecosystem rather than the current one dominated by Americans.

Wang Jian, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Alibaba group, made the remarks in an interview with Xinhua, after he briefed the Slush audience about China's e-commerce businesses.

The Slush, a unique interacting platform in Europe for technical business startups which saw its sixth annual gathering Wednesday and Thursday at a wider venue, proved successful as it received 5,000 participants, a number that surprised Finnish media considering merely about 300 people came to the event in 2008.

The Slush 2013 also drew 60 billion U.S. dollars worth of venture capital, almost twice the value last year.

Believing the global internet is still largely dominated by U.S. technology, Wang said the well-sold Slush entrance tickets gave him confidence to expect a non-American ecosystem to emerge.

He said, "80 percent of netizens are outside America, whereas 80 percent of internet services are provided in America. This is ... not only ... a huge challenge ... but an opportunity as well."

Wang said he was impressed by the "enthusiasm, determination and solidarity" at the Slush venue. "They are similar to us," referring to a recent conference in China organized by Aliyun, a cloud platform of e-commerce set up by Alibaba group.

Wang chaired the conference, which was held earlier this month in Zhejiang Province in eastern China, and attended by some 5,000 developers, customers and investors.

Like Europe, thousands of Chinese business startups began to generate huge revenues through internet and to provide services to millions of users beyond China. "This is a development thanks to the global internet," said Wang.

He noted that many of Chinese successful startups are gaming companies, just like Finland, a nordic country that saw its gaming industry the fastest growing sector in 2012.

Although a senior IT person, Wang said he just heard of Slush not long ago, and he described his negligence as "a result of blind spot."

After his first speech at the Blue Stage, where Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen voiced his optimism about European startups, Wang said he felt committed to persuading more Chinese developers and investors to attend Slush in order to know the latest development in Europe.

Chinese developers are "more of grassroot" compared with their European fellow entrepreneurs, said Wang.

Meanwhile, he believed the limited scale of market is an obstacle for European developers to better test their products and services, and therefore their Chinese partners can offer help in context of the huge, fast growing market.

Moreover, Wang said business startups are relatively easier to grow due to the better-organized financing systems in European countries like Finland, which is an opportunity for those Chinese companies eager to acquire internet know-how and upgrade their product lines.