Alibaba acts on vow about 1 million US jobs

Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, is acting to fulfill a promise he made to US president Donald Trump: Get one million US SEM businesses enrolled on his online platforms to sell their products to China's growing middle class and create one million jobs in the United States.Alibaba will host a two-day conference in Detroit in June to teach US businesses how to sell to the company's 443 million customers in China on the world's biggest e-commerce site."We are already a gateway for thousands of global brands, retailers and companies to sell to Chinese consumers. And we want to expand that gateway (and) level the playing field to make it easy for American entrepreneurs, small businesses and farmers alike to take advantage of the China opportunity," said Ma in an open letter.Named the "Gateway 17", the conference will be held on 20-21 June in Detroit, US and Jack Ma will be in attendance and will speak to an expected audience of more than 1,000 companies and individuals via online streaming.Ma met Trump in New York in January, shortly after he was elected, to discuss how Alibaba could help create jobs in the US.Ma promised he would help create one million jobs over five years by enabling small businesses to sell goods on Alibaba's e-commerce platforms, primarily on its Taobao and Tmall websites.