In today's speech in Hong Kong Alibaba's founder Jack Ma said the company has resolved its problems with China’s State Administration of Industry and Commerce “at the first stage".
On Monday Alibaba shares gained as much as 2.9 percent as of 10:30 a.m. in New York trading.
The SAIC’s actions weren’t supported by “certain government officials,” Ma said, without giving further details. He also said Alibaba has 2,000 full-time employees to help monitor counterfeits and has helped send 400 people to prison for violations.
“We don’t want to be misunderstood by the world that we are not transparent. We don’t want to be misunderstood that Taobao is a platform for selling fake products.” Quoted by Bloomberg, Ma said he’s “much more tired and frustrated than people think.”
Last week the SAIC issued a “white paper” that accused Alibaba of allowing merchants to operate without required licenses, to run unauthorized stores that co-opt famous brands and to sell fake wine and handbags. While the firm's employees took bribes, the company didn’t fix flaws in customer feedback and internal credit-scoring systems, SAIC said.
On Friday the confrontation between Alibaba and the SAIC was toned down, when the Chinese consumer rights agency said a report criticizing the e-commerce company didn’t have “judicial effect.” The statement came after Ma met SAIC chief Zhang Mao and promised to step up anti-piracy spending.
Ma also assured Zhejiang Ant Small & Micro Financial Services Group Co., the company’s finance affiliate, will “definitely” have an initial public offering, adding that he hasn’t given timing or location of the IPO much thought.
The billionaire said he’d prefer if the company went public in Asia, and would be open to listing in Hong Kong, in case regulators there welcome it. Alibaba’s own plans for a Hong Kong IPO were frustrated because the city wouldn’t waive a ban on multiple share-class structures.
The e-commerce giant plans to invest in artificial intelligence, as robots, in his opinion, present a great opportunity in the next 20 years.
Speaking at an event to encourage the spirit of
entrepreneurship among the young, Ma said Alibaba is creating a HK$1 billion
fund ($130 million) to provide startup capital to young Hong
Kong entrepreneurs to strengthen economic ties between the
former British colony and mainland China. The CEO prefers to focus on people aged under 30 or 40
with the fund, and that startups should also seek money from
relatives, friends and not banks or government.
Participation in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy Occupy Central protests shouldn’t disqualify applicants, he said.
