Fortunately, the Internet is changing this, bringing China and India closer together. I hope my column can play a small role in this as well. I'm not an expert on India. But I think the experiences I have to share with readers in India may offer some interesting perspectives from our lessons learned in China. China and India are often described as Asia's two largest emerging markets. So I hope this column will be valuable for people from all backgrounds in India-students, entrepreneurs, government leaders and managers. There are many obvious similarities between India and China.

Our populations are roughly one billion each. Our economies are adopting more liberal market reforms. Our existing communications systems are relatively poor and inefficient compared to the more developed countries.

Pessimists would say our consumers lack money and our countries lack the infrastructure to make the Internet a reality any time soon. But, I would say that China and India stand to benefit from the Internet even more than developed countries. We can leapfrog the old technologies and start from scratch with the most updated technologies. Rather than investing in intermediate technologies we can jump to the most advanced. Our countries also have tremendous human potential. We have highly trained, highly skilled and-most importantly-highly motivated workers in all industries.

But, until now we have had little access to global work opportunities. The Internet is changing this. Now our living room, no matter how remote, can be a school, a workplace, or even an Internet incubator. Alibaba.com is a living example of this. We started Alibaba.com in an apartment in Hangzhou China with nothing but our personal savings and a dream. We were lucky enough to attract the attention of Softbank and Goldman Sachs, who believed in us and invested the funds to help make our dream a reality. I always imagine how many other dreams are out there in apartments across India and China that will soon have a similar opportunity. And to help support these dreams there is a large community of Indians and Chinese worldwide that we can tap into.

Just as the millions of Chinese around the world have contributed financing and technical expertise to the Internet in China, the millions of Indians around the world will help make India's Internet industry stronger. In our Silicon Valley office we even have Chinese and Indian engineers working together, side-by-side, 24 hours per day. I think we'll find more of this type of cooperation between Indians and Chinese closer to home, here in Asia in the future. China now has an estimated 20 million Internet users. China's government has embraced the Internet and is fostering rapid growth of infrastructure. Speeds are increasing dramatically and broadband use is on the rise. China's Internet regulations, sometimes relatively strict to outside eyes, continue to occupy a lot of headlines in the foreign media. But, while there will be some short term bumps in the road, nearly all observers close to the ground-including myself-strongly believe that the door to China's Internet will continue to open.

By many estimates, China will be the second largest Internet market in the world by 2005. The story is a bit different in India, but I think things are changing for the better. Estimates of Internet users in India range from 3-5 million current users. While this is small compared to other countries in Asia, it is encouraging that analysts recently revised their numbers to project much higher growth for Internet use. And if the people I met in the streets and Internet cafes in Delhi are any indication, the Internet in India is going to jump dramatically in the next few years.

On one hand, statistics say that Internet usage in India is growing slowly. On the other hand, people are demanding the Internet so much that India Internet World was one of the largest Internet conferences in the world. So it is really just a matter of time before the supply can catch up with the demand. Like in China, the government in India will need to further deregulate Internet and telecommunications and begin to fully encourage the development of infrastructure. While Internet usage may be taking off a bit earlier in China than India, this is just a short term difference.

Once the Internet speed rises in India and costs go down, I think India and China will be in the same boat. Over the long term people in both countries can be confident that we live in two of the most important and exciting Internet markets in the world. And this will be the case during our entire lifetime.

Jack Ma is CEO and founder of Alibaba.com (www.alibaba.com), the world's largest B2B marketplace for global trade and host to one of India's largest domestic trade communities.