Alibaba (Photo/People's Daily Online)

On June 9 2015 Jack Ma, the founder and executive chairman of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, became the first Chinese entrepreneur to give a speech to the Economic Club of New York. Over 800 people paid 300 dollars to hear Ma's speech. Why are US business circles paying so much attention to a Chinese entrepreneur?

Since Alibaba went public on the New York Stock Exchange in September, it has become a well-known name in US. The questions he faces most frequently, says Ma, include "When are you going to compete with Amazon? When are you going to compete with eBay?"

"We are not here to compete," Ma said in his speech. He emphasized that Alibaba can empower small businesses in the U.S. by providing online traffic, payment systems and logistic systems, to allow them to sell their goods easily in China and tap into the country's rising middle class. "We have the greatest respect for eBay and Amazon," he said. "And I think that for us, the biggest opportunity and the wisest strategy lies in helping small businesses in America. We need more American products in China."

Behind Jack Ma, there is the largest consumer market in the world. Statistics show that the cross-border online consumption of Chinese consumers grew rapidly from less than 2 billion dollars in 2010 to over 20 billion dollars in 2014.