As the chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group, Chinas largest Internet company, Jack Ma predicts that 1 million Internet entrepreneurs will bloom in 2008, making it apparent that e-commerce will have a much bigger effect in China than in the West. China will generate new models of Internet business that will spill over to the West. In addition, e-commerce will lead Chinas economy into a new era in which innovation, customer focus, and responsible business practices, rather than relationships with powerful people, will become the main determining factors of success. China could only watch and admire in 1995 when Western e-commerce was born, as the thought of clicking a mouse to make a purchase in China seemed impossible. At that time, consumer culture had not yet taken off in China, which was hindered by low disposable incomes and an inefficient, state-run retail system. In 2001, Chinas entered the World Trade Organization and a new widget economy was developing along the east coast of China, which was fertile ground for various small and mid-sized companies which made a living from trade. By 2003, two trends were converging to bring customer e-commerce in China out of its long slumber. First, Chinas first generation of Internet users had graduated from universities and turned their attention from online games to online shopping, and a healthy consumer culture had developed, to which the physical retail structure could not keep pace. Second, international e-commerce companies began major investments in China, and the resulting competition helped to educate and thus improve the market. In 2008, the most significant new trend in China will be the emergence of a new class of entrepreneurs. Chinas e-commerce is creating economic opportunities not only in China but also worldwide.