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Alibaba had said earlier on Wednesday it would form a team
within its Tmall business-to-consumer platform to help Mei.com
expand its user base, product offerings, logistics and IT
infrastructure, but did not disclose the size of its investment.
"Alibaba will help Mei.com and other brand partners enter our
ecosystem to allow more efficiency in helping them locate
consumer groups, conduct brand marketing and establish an online
supply chain system," Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang said.
The investment could help Alibaba expand its luxury goods
offerings in China and burnish its reputation with foreign
brands, especially luxury makers, with whom there can still be
friction over intellectual property-infringing products on the
Chinese group's shopping sites.
Its e-commerce platform has for many years had a reputation for
advertising counterfeit products, but in 2012 Alibaba's
eBay-like Taobao website was removed from the U.S. government's
Notorious Markets list.
Since then, the Chinese company's efforts to scrub up have
included various tie-ups with brands and anti-counterfeit
groups, albeit with a mixed reception.
Mei.com cooperates with more than 2,400 brands, including around
280 labels such as Armani, Zegna and Longchamp, Alibaba's
statement said.
(Reporting by John Ruwitch; Additional reporting by Paul Carsten;
Editing by Kazunori Takada and David Holmes)
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