Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. Quashin, president of the business to business marketplace Alabama dot Com, spoke exclusively with Bloomberg TVs Annabelle Drulers. They discussed China's economy, tariff impacts on the SMEs that use the platform, as well as the company's expansion plans and AI usage.
Let's just talk about the outlook for China's economy in particular and what you're seeing, because I think what we were discussing is that there's been quite a divergence or a little bit of a divergence that's coming out now between what we're seeing in the private readings and the official readings for PMI in terms of the private survey is looking a little bit more optimistic from the latest numbers, and that's the one that really tracks the smaller businesses
and attracts the exporters in particular, and that's really what you're seeing as well, as president of Alibaba dot Com. So based on the businesses that you're dealing with with, what would you say is the overall health and outlook at this point in time.
So Alibaba dot Com, actually we serve around two hundred thousand Smese suppliers in China and also globally. And what do we see this year nervous last year? I think several things. The first one is more and more Smese. It's willing to participate in the global trade, so they are more willing to sell globally. So one example is that so there's a small city in EU, you know,
all commodities actually setting and distributing in you. And for the first to the first quarter of this fiscal year, so customers in you who join Alibaba dot Com actually grow seventy percent comparis last year.
Where are you really aiming to expand than Alibaba dot Com? Which markets are you going after?
So let's say from the buyer side and the supplier side, So from from supplies side, actually we expand the supplies. So now it's not only in China, but it also expand globally as well, like in Southeast Asia, in career, in Europe, in Mexico and the North America and LUSI. Actually we do acquisition in Europe Colle visible, which is the biggest kind of marketplace in Europe VOV for the Dutch language area and Europeages for the rest of Europe.
So now we are supporting them from the technology perspective to enable them to boost from the yellow pages to transactions to the kind of like like the guarantee services that we're provided to help the intro business kind of trade, and Aliba dot Com can help the global asms do the cross border trade. So this this is what I'm going to expand and for the buyers that actually it
is the global buyers. The buyers which is booming now is in US and Europe and also in Latin America, and soisition is kind of for deraping countries and different countries actually help the different type of demands for different categories.
The value proposition I think from a buyer is pretty clear. You can say, but perhaps a product for a cheaper price. What do you think then that there are concerns around over capacity, for instance, from a lot of different European countries, how do you respond to those concerns Because that sort of does speak quite closely to the Alibaba dot Com model of being able to connect more supplies to new markets and offer good products for lower prices.
So in one way that we are kind of enriched our selections. There's multiple supplies, like supplies in Europe. So we see there's a great supplies for fashion in France, like wires in Italy and the machineries in Germany and Italy as well, so there's a lot of SMEs actually doing a great job on Alababa dot com and as well, as we mentioned before that we do acquisition investment on Visible, we do that not only for it's not only for
a kind of financial investment. We are going to use our technology at the no House to kind of boost their technology engine to help the small and medium business within the Europe to do the kind of intra Europe collaboration. So I think there's a one part. The second part is the fundamental rule for global trade is supply and demand. So if there is a demand require for kind of quality product with a better price, and what we are going to provide is to lower the barrier for both sides.
So the same is them selfs entrepreneurs themselves can survive and get enough margin out of that that can make a business.
Earlier this year we did some reporting from the Canton Trade Fair and some of the different people that we were speaking to this so that even with the risk of some very hefty tariffs and that referring to the possible Trump tariffs if you were elected president again, but they would be able to withstand them given that the price is so competitive that's coming from China, and the quality as well is also so high that it still is a very competitive and compelling way or area or
country to purchase from. What's your view on how much Chinese companies in the SMEs that are on the platform, how much can they withstand that risk of extra levees being applied to their products?
Okay, all entrepreneurs, from their eyes, there are many problems that they need to serve. So what a product I'm going to provide, what type of employees A'm going to hair? And what about the kind of how to say the economics pax and pariff is only one part.
Of the tax.
So when we see the global supply and demand, we're starting from the fundamental ones and how to the efficiency and how to help them to build up their own business based on the global supply chain which is more competitive for the Assamese. So that's just what do.
We do today.
That's Alabama dot Com president Qua Juang speaking with Bloomberg TVs Annabelle Rulers to hear more conversations like this, Subscribe to the Bloomberg Talks podcast.