China’s largest e-commerce company, Alibaba Group is planning to invest three million U. S. dollars to create e-commerce jobs for college students within the United States according to an announcement made at the 7th Netrepreneur Summit in Hangzhou by Alibaba’s Chief Executive Officer David Wei.
The program named for California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the “Schwarzenegger Emerging Entrepreneur Initiative,” will select 3,000 students from colleges located in California by the end of 2011. The students selected will be from 15 pre-selected colleges.
The students will receive $1,000 each to cover costs of operating shops online and logistic services. Wei said, “with the project we wish to help those young students to launch their entrepreneur career.”
After acquiring two US owned IT companies this year, Alibaba has facilitated the creation of about 20,000 jobs in the state of California. During a six-day stay in Asia, Schwarzenegger visited to encourage trade to and from the state of California.
AliExpress, a freshly launched service, is the catalyst by which Alibaba hopes to assist with job creation. The new platform should make it easier to create and maintain shops online. AliExpress eliminates the requirement for bulk purchases from exporters. The platform, which was launched in April, gives merchants the ability to buy goods directly from exporters.
Alibaba expects a combination of AliExpress along with Auctiva and Vendio will bring thousands of additional customers. Alibaba acquired Auctiva as well as Venido this year. Auctiva develops management software for eBay auction and Vendio provides eBay services.