"People always ask about when China will have its own Steve Jobs. I think it is Jack Ma. I think he is already there. How many major products and innovations has he invented in the last decade? " Towson said.
Behind China's emerging Internet economy are the country's over 600 million Internet users, many of whom have only moved online in recent years.
Towson also had praise for major Internet company Tencent and its innovative instant mobile messaging app WeChat, which had over 100 million overseas registered users as of last August.
"They saw the opportunity in instant mobile messaging, they developed the application in-house, they launched it in China and took over Asia pretty quickly. They've also launched an English version and they are moving into Europe right now," Towson said.
Facebook, a possible contender for Tencent, recently spent $19 billion to purchase WhatsApp, a popular instant messaging app.
"When Facebook bought WhatsApp, that put them head to head with WeChat for the first time. Because it turns out that instant messaging programs are pretty global.
"Instant messaging doesn't look like winner-takes-all. It looks like a long-term fight. I would give the first round to Tencent," he said.
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