Alibaba
to invest more abroad as globalization top priority: CEO
Zhang
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[May 14, 2015]
BEIJING (Reuters) - Alibaba Group
Holding Ltd will invest heavily in existing and new ventures abroad,
making its push beyond the China market a top priority, the Chinese
e-commerce leader's new CEO, Daniel Zhang, said.
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Zhang's comments come at a time when Alibaba aims to maintain its
rapid growth even as the prospect of e-commerce saturation at home
looms over the company.
"We must absolutely globalize," Zhang said in his first speech since
taking up his new post this week, according to a report on Thursday
on Alibaba's news and commentary website, Alizila.
The vast bulk of Alibaba's revenue comes from its dominant domestic
online marketplaces, but the company has been investing in a range
of sectors abroad. Just this week it announced it would set up a
cloud computing base in Dubai, and boosted its stake in U.S.
e-retailer Zulily Inc.
"We will organize a global team and adopt global thinking to manage
the business, and achieve the goal of 'global buy and global sell',"
Zhang was quoted as saying.
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Alibaba, which handles more transactions on its platforms than
Amazon.com Inc and eBay Inc combined, would continue to invest
heavily in new and existing overseas operations, Zhang was quoted as
saying. Those included AliExpress, a platform for overseas consumers
to buy Chinese goods, and Tmall Global, a marketplace for overseas
goods to be sold online in China.
Zhang said if Alibaba does not globalize it won't be able to last
100 years - a goal set out by Executive Chairman Jack Ma.
But growth of Alibaba's international commerce business is lagging
the pace of growth in China, even as the new CEO faces the prospect
of slowing domestic growth as saturation among online shoppers
threatens to hobble expansion.
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In the three months ended March, Alibaba's revenue from China
commerce grew 39 percent to $2.2 billion. International commerce
grew 27 percent to $264 million and only accounted for 9 percent of
revenue, compared to 11 percent in the same period a year earlier.
Alibaba says some of its larger overseas markets include Brazil and
Russia. The company and its affiliates are also making overtures in
India, where it is in talks with phone maker Micromax Informatics to
buy a $1.2 billion stake, according to several people with direct
knowledge of the matter.
For the United States, Alibaba is planning a major move to win
business this year, by offering American retailers new ways to sell
to China's vast and growing middle class.
(Reporting by John Ruwitch and Paul Carsten; Editing by Muralikumar
Anantharaman)
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