At the World Economic Forum Jack Ma, Chairman of Alibaba, explained the differences in business models and thinking between Amazon and his company: for him it is Empire vs Eco-System.

According to Ma, Amazon has built an empire and wants to control more or less the whole value chain itself. Alibaba on the other hand has created an eco-system. It wants to enable lots of partners to earn lots of money and only provides the core systems by itself. For him it is a more efficient way to grow very fast.

Andrew Ross Sorkin, the moderator, asked Jack Ma a very Western question: “Which model is the right one?” And he gave a very Chinese answer: “Probably both. A world where only one model is the right one would be very boring!” 👍😉