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"What we will focus more for the future is to build local
businesses, so you will see something called TMall which we have
in China become TMall in Europe, which means we will serve local
brands and local customers in local markets," J. Michael Evans
told a technology conference in Paris.
"We have started with a pilot project in Spain which we will
expand across Europe," he said.
Alibaba announced in March it would split into six units and
explore fundraising or listings for most of them, following a
two-year regulatory crackdown on China's tech sector.
Its e-commerce business is to be split, with one side covering
Alibaba's domestic-facing e-commerce marketplaces and the other
its overseas e-commerce marketplaces such as Lazada, which
serves Southeast Asia, and AliExpress.
Taobao and TMall are China's dominant e-commerce marketplaces in
China.
Asked about Alibaba founder Jack Ma, China's best known
entrepreneur who withdrew from public view in late 2020 after
giving a speech criticising China's regulatory system, he said
Ma remained Alibaba's biggest shareholder and still cared very
much about the company.
Ma left mainland China in late 2021 for stints in Japan, Spain,
Australia and Thailand, according to photographs, but returned
in March a day before Alibaba announced its restructuring. He
has not made any public comments during that period.
"Jack is alive, he is well, he is happy. He is teaching at a
university in Tokyo and spending more time in China," Evans
said.
"He is the largest shareholder at Alibaba. This is his company,
he cares as much about this company today as he did when he
started it and I expect this to continue for as long as Alibaba
and Jack Ma are here."
(Reporting by Silvia Aloisi; editing by Benoit Van Overstraeten
and Jason Neely)
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