Jack Ma: The future has come

Chapter 4 Globalization in the 21st Century (3)
The future supervision and governance of government departments cannot do without big data.When the government attracts investment, what it needs to consider is not the original "five connections and one leveling", but the overall service capabilities of computing power, storage capacity, and data. The DT era is fairer, more transparent, and more open. DT's thinking is "I am in you, and you are in me." DT thinking makes everyone connected and inseparable.

If manufacturing is born in the IT era, then "creation" will be born in the DT era.If knowledge is born in the IT era, then in the DT era, human beings will truly enter the era of wisdom.Computing power will become a kind of productivity in the future, and data will become the largest means of production, and will become a public resource like water, electricity, and oil.Before having new energy sources such as oil, human beings did not think that they would land on the moon; before having computing power, we may not be able to imagine how far human thinking ability can extend.I believe one thing is certain, with computing power and data, human beings will undergo earth-shaking changes, and human beings will develop from "looking outward" to "looking inward".What is "looking outside"?Human knowledge and vision have expanded to other planets, and Mars and Venus are within our exploration domain.However, human beings have a very shallow understanding of themselves, and data will enable us to have an unprecedented awareness and understanding of ourselves, which is "looking inward".

This is a release of cognition and thinking ability from the technical level.Human beings need to challenge the problems of disease, poverty, and environmental degradation, and the huge weapon that humans have this time is the computer, which is the ability of cloud computing, big data analysis and application.When computers are connected to the poorest corners of the world, I believe that the possibility of human beings overcoming poverty will greatly increase.The liberation of thinking ability will also change the way of survival of enterprises.Small businesses will have the same opportunities as large ones, and innovation and creativity will be the decisive factors for their success.

Great companies must be born in difficult times

Many people are worried about China's economic problems. In fact, I personally think that the Chinese economy has never encountered such a good opportunity. Great companies must be born in difficult times.The upward speed of China's economy has dropped from 9% to 7%, but even at 5%, China's economy is still the fastest growing among the world's four major economies.The huge potential of China's economy lies in domestic demand.In the past, the "troika" of the Chinese economy was the so-called investment, export and domestic demand. Investment and export were the strengths of the government, but it was difficult for the government to get the people to spend their money for consumption.Today, we can use new technologies, "cloud" to stimulate domestic demand, use "cloud" to activate domestic demand, and use cloud computing and the Internet to cultivate domestic demand.I believe that in the next 20 years, China will enter the era of real domestic demand.This is a huge opportunity for all innovators and entrepreneurs.

Today, about 3 million people in China belong to the middle-income group, but our consumption level and spending power are still in their infancy.What is consumption?According to the interpretation of Ci Hai, consumption refers to the process in which people consume material materials to meet the needs of material and cultural life.Under different income levels and consumption concepts, people have different requirements for the quality and quantity of material needs.We used to have only one TV at home, but now many people may have four TVs at home, but only one is often turned on, and the other three are for the convenience of life, for example, family members can watch their favorite TV in different rooms TV programs, and this is the domestic demand that emerged after the quality of life improved.

We need to encourage people to buy more and to spend money.Sometimes, the more money is spent, the more money is spent, not saved, but obtained through investment, consumption, and enjoyment of a greater motivation to create wealth.People living in this world should not only live a life of hard work and frugality, but also enjoy the material life created by struggle.I think all entrepreneurs and innovators should make your products attractive to others, and make your products arouse the impulse of others to buy and enjoy services. This is the real driving force of the consumer economy.

In the next 15 years, 5 million people in China will enter the middle class. What does 5 million people mean?There are less than 1.5 million middle-class people in the United States today, but domestic demand in the United States has driven the development of the entire world economy, which means that in the next 15 years, China will have three times the domestic demand of the United States.How to tap this domestic demand is the real and sustainable development of China's economy.All our entrepreneurs and innovators must do everything possible to tap domestic demand and start from health, happiness, and "smart manufacturing".Only in this way can we go further and make China's economy, China's environment and Chinese people go better.

We all know that money is very important, but I know more about the importance of sticking to your dreams and working hard.I remember that 15 years ago, I went to Silicon Valley to seek financing more than 2000 times, and found more than 10 companies, all of which were rejected.Many people today say that financing is difficult, no, financing has never been as easy as it is today.In the past, when we raised US$[-] million, we became the company with the most financing in the year. Today, we are ashamed to tell others that we have raised US$[-] billion.

There are many people who tell stories about China, but not many people can turn the stories into reality.We can't ask others for money, but ask the market for money and make profits.Only when others see your profits can you last.Therefore, I hope that entrepreneurs will keep their feet on the ground, spend the money they should spend, and save the money they should not spend.We still have a long way to go. The competition in the future is not a three-year competition, but a 3-year competition.

The real driving force of China's economy lies not in traditional manufacturing, but in the creativity, innovation and creation of all entrepreneurs!
Editor's note:

On October 2015, 10, the "Hangzhou Yunqi Conference" was held, and Jack Ma delivered a keynote speech at the conference.

5. When we talk about EWTP, we talk about globalization

We have to find a way to change the current state of trade.The world is undergoing tremendous changes. The Internet, as a huge technological innovation of mankind in this century, has no less impact on the world's industrial structure after the outbreak of the first industrial revolution in the UK.The first industrial revolution gave birth to factories and facilitated world trade.The second industrial revolution took place in Europe and the United States, which promoted the development of large companies and large organizations. As a result, some internationally accepted trade agreements and terms emerged.However, there is no shortage of trade agreements in the world today, but trade is becoming more and more difficult, and there are more and more disputes. As a result, more and more people are unhappy.The first technological revolution marked by the use of steam engines liberated human physical energy; the second technological revolution marked by the widespread application of electricity enabled human beings to go further; the third technological revolution marked by atomic energy, electronic computers and The discovery and invention of organic synthetic materials is a symbol, which liberates the tedious and complicated mental work of human beings.Today, we have entered an era where information technology, bioinformatics industry, and big data are keywords. This technological revolution will not only further liberate human physical and mental power, but also unleash human wisdom.As far as we are concerned, it is how to use our wisdom to solve the problems that human beings have in the process of trade.

Sanctions on SMEs are tantamount to bombing civilians
In 2001, I participated in the Winter Davos Forum for the first time. At that time, China had just celebrated its accession to the WTO. Everyone believed that China was facing a huge challenge-"wolves" are coming!Foreign enterprises want to enter China, and foreign production materials and commodities must enter China.We call these outsiders "wolves".However, Chinese enterprises and consumers believe that since the WTO is inevitable, we must embrace it and embrace this change.However, it was only when I arrived in Davos that I realized that there were a lot of people marching and demonstrating in Davos to express their protests.People are against globalization, and many people think that globalization will not bring benefits to the world economy.I went to that meeting with great confusion.

15 years later, my confusion still hasn't changed.In the past 15 years, world trade has undergone earth-shaking changes due to the advancement of the WTO: 15 years ago, the Chinese believed that the "wolf" was coming, and foreign companies entering China would destroy the entire Chinese market; 15 years later, foreign companies believed that "China "Wolf" came and drove them away.But in the past 15 years, we have seen a problem: countless multinational companies have gained huge benefits, while small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries and countless young people have not benefited much from globalization.How to enable countless small and medium-sized enterprises, young people, and female entrepreneurs to benefit from global trade is a huge challenge.Without the efforts of the WTO in the past few decades, the world economy and trade would not have developed to where they are today. Unfortunately, until today, WTO meetings have been discussed by government departments.Where are the entrepreneurs?Where are the real traders?

We can clearly see that the world is becoming more and more complicated: there is a lack of trust between people, a lack of communication and understanding, and various cultures are still constantly arguing and confronting each other.I think trade is the best way of communication and the best way to carry culture, which allows us to respect and understand different cultures.But today, some trade has become a means of politics and a tool of war (economic sanctions).I personally am very opposed to all forms of trade sanctions, especially those imposed on small and medium-sized enterprises.In my opinion, sanctioning SMEs is tantamount to bombing civilians.We should let trade return to trade. Trade itself should not take on more political factors. It should be more by enterprises and NGOs (non-governmental organizations) to balance the interests of all parties, so as to establish a new mutual benefit trade rules.

The continuous development of the Internet has connected the world through virtual space, turning people from all corners of the world into residents of the global village.Google, Facebook, Tencent, and Baidu are all trying to connect people.Using the Internet to connect businesses, banks and infrastructure all over the world, so that everyone can engage in trade and every small business can participate in trade, this is what our generation must do.

Break down trade barriers and build EWTP
My understanding of trade is that no matter what method you use, you can buy and sell globally.In the past, the trade rules were among large enterprises. The future trade rules should apply to all law-abiding buyers and sellers, and everyone can have the opportunity to participate.For example, you have a piece of land in your family. Through this platform, the agricultural products produced in your land can be sold not only to your own village, but also to the county town, but also to any country and region in the world—every consumer in the world has the right Buy or sell goods from anywhere in the world.Trade should be everyone's right and should be accessible to everyone.Work during the day and do business at night.

In particular, I appeal that the whole world should establish an EWTP.On EWTP, we focus on 80% of enterprises that have no chance to participate in globalization, we focus on those small enterprises, and focus on those developing countries.The past WTO rules were to help multinational companies and developed countries. In the next 30 years, we should focus on 80% of small and medium-sized enterprises, 80% of developing countries, and 80% of women and young people, so that they have more opportunities Participate in world trade on this platform.

I think we should work together to break down all trade barriers and build an organization no less than the WTO.The Internet connects companies all over the world, and data allows everyone to enjoy a fair trading environment, and everyone can use the global logistics system.I believe that today we already have such technology, we also have the conditions to further improve the rules of world trade, and there are still a group of young people who are willing to participate in world trade.As we all know, as of March 2016, 3, Alibaba's e-commerce GMV (gross turnover) has exceeded 21 trillion yuan.In the past 3 years, Alibaba has completed sales of 13 trillion yuan despite the imperfect Internet infrastructure and trade conditions in China as a whole.Since thousands of Chinese young people can do it in just 3 years, why can't we make the world trade platform more barrier-free through 13 or 10 years of hard work?

I call on everyone to jointly build the EWTP platform.We have to change, to create a new platform.On this platform, we should no longer argue with each other, but should share trade content and culture; on this platform, we can increase knowledge and understanding among countries, and let young people all over the world find their own opportunities.We must not only advance the technology of the platform, but also promote inclusive finance.Our expectation is: to benefit young people all over the world through the inclusive financial system!
The world has changed, and we should no longer argue about yesterday, nor can we return to yesterday's glory.The world will be better tomorrow only if 80% of people who did not get the chance yesterday get the chance.

(End of this chapter)