Alibaba to invest more abroad with globalization a priority
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 Yong said.
Zhang’s comments have 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, according to a report on Thursday on Alibaba’s news and commentary website alizila.com.
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. It announced on Tuesday it would set up a cloud computing base in Dubai, and boosted its stake in US e-retailer Zulily Inc.
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.
Separately, Alibaba said in a press release e-mailed to the Global Times Thursday that the company has made an investment in express delivery firm Shanghai YTO Express (Logistics) Co together with Yunfeng Capital, a private equity firm partly owned by Jack Ma Yun.
The value of the deal was not disclosed in the press release.