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Alibaba’s Jack Ma to Step Down & Focus on Philanthropy

8Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

CHINA

Alibaba’s Jack Ma to Step Down & Focus on Philanthropy

Jack Ma, the founder of the largest Chinese e-commerce platform Alibaba Group is reportedly stepping down from the position of executive chairman of the company from Monday, marking the end of an era. However, one of the richest men in China, Jack Ma has stated that he will remain on Alibaba's board of directors. The primary motive of stepping down from his position is that he has planned to pursue philanthropy in education. “I love education,” he said. Ma planned to retire and is willing to dedicate more of his time and fortune to philanthropy with the creation of a foundation in his own name focused on education, following in the footsteps of billionaire Bill Gates. "There's a lot of things I can learn from Bill Gates," Jack Ma said. "I can never be as rich, but one thing I can do...

6Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

ACQUISITION

China’s Alibaba Group Eyeing Valuable Acquisition in India

China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba Group is eyeing considerable investments in India through valuable acquisitions. The company is looking to buy out content platforms across print, video and web to increase its reach within the country. The e-commerce major stated that it looks upon user data privacy and security with seriousness, and therefore stores most of the user information within servers in India. "India is one of the most important overseas markets for UCWeb. Of the 430 million users that we have on our browser globally, a large chunk of 130 million users come from India," Shunyan Zhu, president of the company said. A mobile browser and content platform called the UCWeb is operated by the Alibaba Group. Due to the expansion in the usage of online browsing platforms, it has now ...

Alibaba’s Q1 Revenue Rose But Investments May Decrease Profits

24Aug By Gauri SinghNo Comments

BUSINESS

Alibaba’s Q1 Revenue Rose But Investments May Decrease Profits

China’s largest e-commerce player Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has shown a huge rise in the first-quarter revenue estimates which is majorly due to the growth in its core e-commerce business. However, the company has stated that the investments in the food delivery business are increasing and might overpower the profits. The revenue of the company increased 61 percent to 80.9 billion yuan ($11.77 billion) in the April-June period, as compared to the average estimate of 80.7 billion yuan in the previous quarter. Though the overall revenue rose, the net income attributable to shareholders decreased 41 percent to 8.7 billion yuan or 3.3 yuan per share. Alibaba’s U.S.-listed shares rose about 3 percent in premarket trade. The sales at the company’s core e-commerce business increased 61 p...

7Aug By Gauri SinghNo Comments

CHINA

Alibaba to Merge China’s Food Delivery Units To Surpass Meituan

China’s largest conglomerate Alibaba Group is planning to bring together and merge its food delivery units. The units that are getting merged are food delivery platform Ele.me and food and lifestyle services firm Koubei. The purpose behind this move is to raise funds for the combined business and also to intensify the battle with Tencent-backed Meituan Dianping which is the company’s rival. With this merger, Alibaba Group is expecting to raise between $3 billion and $5 billion for the combined entity, and according to the sources, the entity could be valued at up to $25 billion. "Alibaba and Meituan are the two main companies that can offer comprehensive O2O services," said Mo Jia, a Shanghai-based research analyst with technology consultancy Canalys. "Alibaba's three units are complem...

China’s E-commerce Major Alibaba to Acquire Stake in Focus Media

20Jul By Gauri SinghNo Comments

ACQUISITION

China’s E-commerce Major Alibaba to Acquire Stake in Focus Media

China’s e-commerce major Alibaba Group announced on Wednesday that it has agreed to take over a minority stake in China's Focus Media Information Technology with an aim to tap into the digital marketing segment. The e-commerce giant will be acquiring about 6.62 percent in Focus Media for about 9.63 billion yuan ($1.43 billion) and expectedly yet another 5 percent stake in the next one year as stated by the company. Alibaba also has plans to invest $511.1 million in an entity managed by Jason Jiang, Focus Media's chairman, by subscribing to the newly issued shares of the company. Focus Media’s digital advertising screens can be seen on the streets, on subways and in elevators across 300 Chinese cities, reaching 200 million middle-class consumers. By getting in association with Focu...

Alibaba Launches a Programme To Strengthen its Presence in India

14Jul By Gauri SinghNo Comments

News

Alibaba Launches a Programme To Strengthen its Presence in India

Alibaba Group, the popular Chinese conglomerate has announced the launch of its new distribution channel programme with an aim to strengthen its existence in India. The company believes that it is a great time to carry on and grow business in the country. The company had also come up with its new distribution channel programme to encourage partners to bring in-depth technical knowledge to customers, during the “India Eco Summit”. “Alibaba Cloud has always been dedicated to empower enterprises of different sizes to tap into opportunities in the digital age. With digital transformation poised to add close to $154 Bn to India’s GDP, this is a great opportunity for us to do business in India,” said Alex Li, General Manager of Alibaba Cloud Asia Pacific. With this new strategy and innovati...

Jack Ma Partners With Ganesh Ventures To Boost Investments

10Jul By Gauri SinghNo Comments

CHINA

Jack Ma Partners With Ganesh Ventures To Boost Investments

Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba Group has entered into an association with a $250 million Chinese venture capital fund known as Ganesh Ventures. The idea behind this partnership is to create a strong and sturdy network among the Indian entrepreneurs and Chinese investors and entrepreneurs. Ganesh Ventures will stand as Jack Ma’s strategic partner in India. The India-focused fund has currently made its first close of $30 million. The funding was led by Jack Ma’s eWTP Ecosystem Fund and Hong Kong-based Landmark Capital. Ganesh Ventures will further build offices in Gurugram, Bengaluru, Hong Kong and Beijing. The company also intends to finalize half a dozen deals this year. Ganesh Ventures will also be eWTP’s strategic investment partner in India. The company, named after the elephant-...

Zomato vs Swiggy- The Much Heated ‘Unicorn’ Battle over $2.5 Bn Worth Foodtech Industry

20Jun By Lavina TolaniNo Comments

ANALYSIS

Zomato vs Swiggy- The Much Heated ‘Unicorn’ Battle over $2.5 Bn Worth Foodtech Industry

It's just been three months when Food Delivery Platform Zomato raised $200 Mn from Ant Financials and now it is gearing to raise fresh $200 Mn from Alibaba. Interestingly, Zomato's arch-rival Swiggy is too nearing to acquire unicorn status as it is reportedly raising $200 million from Yuri Milner’s DST Global. While Swiggy has declined to reveal any information regarding its proposed funding, Zomato too has chosen to remain tightlipped. However, one thing is confirmed that with players eyeing a big chunk of the pie, the Indian food tech industry is surely going to witness a heated battle in the times ahead. This year has been really eventful for food tech where in March, Swiggy raised $100 million from Naspers, while Zomato raised $200 million from Ant Financials in February. Whil...

Paytm Mall Raises Huge Fund From SoftBank & Alibaba

13Jun By Gauri SinghNo Comments

FUNDING

Paytm Mall Raises Huge Fund From SoftBank & Alibaba

The e-commerce platform of Paytm known as ‘Paytm Mall’ has raised funds amounting to Rs 1500 crore from Japenese holding company SoftBank Group Corporation and its existing lender Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. According to the reports, the recent funding is a part of the funding commitment of Rs 3,000 crore that was at first announced in April. Paytm Mall has now received the third and final tranche of the deal. Alibaba and SoftBank Corp. had undertaken to invest an amount of Rs 3000 crore jointly in the Paytm Mall out of which the amount of Rs 2600 crore supposed to be invested by SoftBank and the rest Rs 400 crore by Alibaba. Paytm Mall is a Paytm-operated e-commerce platform that operates on its own mobile application making it easy for the users to have a look on a variety of brande...

Ant Financial Raises $14 Billion From National And International Investors

8Jun By Gauri SinghNo Comments

FUNDING

Ant Financial Raises $14 Billion From National And International Investors

China’s biggest online payment platform Ant Financial Services Group which operates the Alipay mobile payment service, in its recent funding, has raised a huge amount of around $14 billion, with the aim to expand its platform across the globe and bring in latest technologies. Ant Financial which is controlled by Jack Ma is an Alibaba affiliated fintech firm. The investment of the firm is being reviewed as the biggest-ever single fundraising globally by any private sector company. In a statement, Ant Group told that the funding comprised of both U.S. dollar and Chinese yuan tranches, where the dollar share made up over $10 billion and the yuan tranche was mainly contributed by the existing shareholders. "Now, with the help of our partners, we are going to accelerate our strategy," Ant...

Amazon India Offers Cashback to Customers Celebrating Wallet Success

7Jun By Lavina TolaniNo Comments

News

Amazon India Offers Cashback to Customers Celebrating Wallet Success

E-commerce giant Amazon is loading cash to its digital wallet for customers in India as it is actively pushing to deepen its footprint in the country battling competition from rivals-Alibaba and Walmart. A letter dated June 5 issued to customers, which also marked the fifth anniversary of launch in India, Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder offered a cashback of Rs 250 to be paid into Amazon pay wallets for customers who shopped online for goods worth Rs 1000 on Wednesday. It is interesting to note that the US retail giant has reported a 126% growth in transactions and 68% growth in unique users in its Indian business operations. Amazon has invested Rs. 700 crore in its Indian digital payment business since 2016 as it is looking forward to boosting its e-wallet and bring in new innovations...

World’s Highest-Valued AI Company Raises $1.2 Billion Within 2 Months

2Jun By Gauri SinghNo Comments

FUNDING

World’s Highest-Valued AI Company Raises $1.2 Billion Within 2 Months

China's leading artificial intelligence company, SenseTime has raised $620 million in its latest Series C+ round of fundraising, being the world's highest-valued AI company at a valuation of more than $4.5 billion. The company had raised $600 million last month Alibaba-led investors and Singapore’s state investment firm and now is back with an upraise. The latest funding of the startup is being carried on in association with some well-known and noteworthy companies - Fidelity International, Hopu Capital, Silver Lake and Tiger Global. SenseTime confirmed that Qualcomm, which formerly sponsored the firm, was also in this round. The new investment brought the amount raised to more than $1.2 billion and tripling its valuation in under a year. SenseTime is at present valued at over $4.5 bill...