NEW DELHI: For Alibaba.com, the business-to-business arm of the world's largest e-retailer Alibaba Group India is the second largest market globally."India is the second most important market for Alibaba.com globally, next only to China for us," said Timothy Leung, head of global business development, Alibaba.com. The business-to-business subsidiary of Alibaba Group launched an online platform to provide Indian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) access to global counterparts."India is at a critical point at present and from here we will see sharp upswing in ecommerce. We are very excited in building this consortium for SMEs," he added.The company has 4.5 million registered users from India, with the country accounting for the second-highest paid users on the platform after China. SMEs in India can also avail assistance in terms of financing, logistics (domestic and cross-border), inspections and certifications, technology and SME trade-linked education on this platform. The Chinese company has partnered with enterprises such as ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Crisil Rating, Tally, Capital Float, Jeena, SGS and Mypacco to help Indian SMEs expand their business."There are at similarities in our experience in Chinese and India markets in terms of population size, kind of SMEs and also the core path in the ecommerce. We are also looking at our experience in the past in China and match it with what is happening in India," added Leung.Citing similarities with the Chinese market Leung said that in China, B2B side of the business spearheaded the growth for Alibaba. The company through its B2B platform brought buyers and suppliers together and then ventured into supporting different aspects of the ecosystem."That's what we trying to build here. Other than matching buyers and supplier we are trying to develop the ecosystem," Leung said.On the consumer side of the business also the Chinese major and its financial arm Ant Financial have picked up stakes Indian ecommerce companies Paytm and Snapdeal . Founder Jack Ma was in India three times in one year and also met the prime minister.The recently launched initiative, known as SMILE, hopes to connect Indian manufacturers with quality Chinese suppliers on Alibaba.com, provide Indian sellers the trading support and facilitate the global sales of Indian products through the platform.Talking about the fast growing ecommerce industry in the country, Leung said that 16 years ago when Alibaba started China went from becoming a no-internet country to one of the most advanced ecommerce ecosystems in the world. India is at much advanced stage and growing at a very fast rate when compared to China of those times.