---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Tom Crowl <[email protected]> Date: Fri, May 13, 2011 at 9:11 PM Subject: Yahoo Discloses Jack Ma Takes Control Of Alipay From Alibaba To: *RE: Online PaySystems, information ownership and human rights* *Yahoo Discloses Jack Ma Takes Control Of Alipay From Alibaba*<http://blogs.forbes.com/ericsavitz/2011/05/11/yahoo-discloses-jack-ma-takes-control-of-alipay-from-alibaba/>

From the piece:

*“To expedite obtaining an essential regulatory license, (from Chinese government) the ownership of Alibaba Group’s online payment business, Alipay, was restructured so that 100 percent of its outstanding shares are held by a Chinese domestic company which is majority owned by Alibaba Group’s chief executive officer…”* *“Alipay is the largest online platform in the world in terms of registered users, transactions and total payment volume; he’s been estimating the company’s value at $2 billion. The company has 550 million registered users, compared with 94.4 million for for PayPal at the end of 2010.”* ---------------------------------------- While the article narrowly focuses on the potential effect on Yahoo revenues… For me the concern is how willing narrow interests are to place such a system under indirect control of those without a great deal of concern for human rights. Don’t neglect the PaySystem landscape as economic interaction goes global!… and its relationship to human advancement. Precedents and patterns are being set which may be very difficult to dislodge. *Leveling The Transaction Landscape: Technology and the Campfire<http://culturalengineer.blogspot.com/2011/04/leveling-transaction-landscape.html> * Regards, *Tom Crowl* (818) 363-0775 http://CulturalEngineer.blogspot.com -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens