Chinese firm Alibaba.com Corp will invest 10 billion yuan
(US$1.3 billion) in the next three to five years to integrate
sectors linked to e-commerce.
The big-picture plan is to come up with a complete industry chain,
such as facilitating small companies' overseas sales, according to
Alibaba.com senior executives.
The money will be invested not only to strengthen its own muscle,
which covers online auctions, business-to-business (B2B) trader
matching and online payment, but also in external projects like
logistics to improve the e-commerce infrastructure and support the
industry.
Company officials wouldn't say whether it means acquisitions to
expand the portfolio of Alibaba, which is already China's largest
e-commerce firm.
"In the next few years we will be devoted to the industry's
development to build a favorable environment and 'an ecological
chain' to go with it," Jack Ma, founder and chief executive officer
of Alibaba, told Internet businessmen summoned from around the
nation to its annual Alifest conference over the weekend.
Ma said the money will be used for big reforms of the e-commerce
industry chain, which the government "still hasn't any budget for"
due to more important businesses to attend to at this stage.
Tao Ran, a spokesman for Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province-based Alibaba,
explained yesterday that the investment is for the overall
industry, with their own businesses part of it, but refused to
clarify.
Alibaba has teamed up with banks in China to offer the online
payment service, Alipay.com, and worked with China Post to
penetrate underdeveloped e-commerce regions like rural areas using
its most extensive parcel-delivery and money-remittance
network.
Wei Zhe, who is in charge of Alibaba's B2B business, said the group
will continue its expansion outside the Chinese mainland, with the
next steps to enter Taiwan and Japan. It has already set up a
presence in Hong Kong.
The group now operates six business segments: Alibaba.com for B2B,
Taobao.com for online auction, Alipay, China Yahoo that it took
over in 2005, Alisoft for business software and recently
Alimama.com, an online ad-trading platform that is still being
tested.
Alibaba.com, its wholesale business arm, plans to raise up to US$1
billion in a Hong Kong listing this year.
Hong Kong media reported that it will hold a hearing for the
listing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange as early as Thursday, but
company officials refused to comment.
(Shanghai Daily September 18, 2007)
