Future will be about made on the internet

Davos: With e-commerce growing, Chinese giant Alibaba's chief Jack Ma on Wednesday predicted the future will be about 'made on the internet' and not labels like 'made in China' or 'made in America'. Speaking at a session here at the World Economic Forum (WEF) on 'Enabling e-commerce: Small enterprises, global players', Ma said in the future, every young person and small business will be able to buy, sell, pay and travel globally.

 "This is the trend - no one can stop it," he said. The session discussed how e-commerce could give small businesses access to global markets that were once reserved for multinationals, yet just 7 per cent of global e-commerce trade takes place across borders. 

It explored how new digital policies could break down barriers to international e-commerce and support the next generation of entrepreneurs to rise. Jack Ma said that even without a perfect logistics system, payments system or blockchain, e-commerce has grown remarkably. Alibaba would be the 21st largest economy in the world if it were a country, he said. Imagine what will happen when those challenges are solved, he added. 

In the same session, WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo said governments still have rules and regulations that apply to 20th century trade. "That’s going to disappear," he averred. Jack Ma predicted that in the future there will be no 'made in China', 'made in America', or 'made in Peru'. "It's going to be 'made on the internet'," he said.