Alibaba woos US small business

China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group chose Detroit, Michigan to stage its inaugural two-day Gateway '17 Summit, which kicked off on Tuesday and is designed to educate US small and medium-sized enterprises on the Chinese market and consumer demands to ultimately help them sell to China.

Approximately 3,000 US SMEs registered for the summit, almost triple the number Alibaba expected. Among them, 673 are from Michigan and 103 of those from the Detroit metro area.

In a conversation with US SME representatives on Tuesday, Alibaba founder and executive chairman Jack Ma said this first-ever event was "what he has been dreaming of for 18 years" - a trade show held solely for the benefit of small businesses.