Martha Stewart Touts Detroit As 'A Hotbed Of Innovation'

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA chose the right city in which to engage American small business, Martha Stewart said at the Gateway '17 conference Wednesday.

The 75-year-old publisher, entrepreneur and TV star is the founder of the Martha Stewart Living empire.

“I applaud Jack Ma and Alibaba so much for being here in Detroit, which is like a hotbed of innovation and American makers,” Stewart told CNN journalist Lisa Ling during an interview at the conference.

Stewart, who turned to entrepreneurship after a career as a stockbroker, said she was an early adopter of personal computers and purchased an IBM in 1982.

Stewart has millions of social media followers on Facebook Inc FB, Twitter Inc TWTR and Instagram. Ling asked how social media has factored into Stewart’s business.

“I’m not a Gigi Hadid or a Kim Kardashian, unfortunately,” Stewart said dryly.

After years of traditional television, Stewart said she was an early and enthusiastic adopter of Facebook Live.

The platform allows Stewart to produce an entire show with three people, one camera and one mic, she said.

“It costs about $8,000 instead of $100,000 per show.”

That's a good thing, right?

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Photo by Dustin Blitchok: Martha Stewart — entrepreneur, publisher, TV star and founder of Martha Stewart Living — speaks Wednesday at Alibaba's Gateway '17 conference at Cobo Center in Detroit.