Thursday, December 19

Tag: alibaba

Alibaba, SAIF Partners to Invest $200 Million in Paytm E-commerce Platform
FUNDING

Alibaba, SAIF Partners to Invest $200 Million in Paytm E-commerce Platform

Chinese e-commerce major Alibaba, along with investment firm SAIF Partners, will pump in USD 200 million in Paytm's online marketplace unit. Alibaba Singapore E-Commerce Pvt Ltd will invest USD 177 million in Paytm E-Commerce Pvt Ltd, the demerged unit of digital payments company, One 97 Communications that operates under Paytm brand. The remaining amount will come from SAIF, an early investor in One 97, according to a filing with the Registrar of Companies. Post the investment, Alibaba Singapore E-Commerce will have a shareholding of 36.31 percent, while SAIF Partners India will own 4.66 percent in Paytm E-Commerce. Paytm declined to comment on the matter. This deal is expected to pave the way for the much-awaited entry of Alibaba into India, where the Chinese firm will go head-to-h...
Alibaba Invests in $200 Million in South Korea’s Messaging Giant Kakao Pay
FUNDING

Alibaba Invests in $200 Million in South Korea’s Messaging Giant Kakao Pay

Alibaba's payment affiliate Ant Financial will invest USD 200 million in a unit of South Korean messaging giant Kakao, the companies said today, the Chinese firm's latest step to expand its global reach. The investment in Kakao Pay comes less than a month after Ant bought US-based payments operator MoneyGram for around USD 880 million and struck a partnership deal with Thailand's Ascend Money in November. Ant is behind Alipay, which accounts for 80 [ercent of electronic payments in China where it is used for e-commerce at Alibaba online venues and a large number of mobile applications. Ant is also involved in investment services and online banking. "South Korea is an important market for Ant Financial in its global expansion," said Douglas Feagin, president of Ant Financial Intern...
Alibaba’s Jack Ma Warns of ‘Big Trade War’ Between China, US
CHINA

Alibaba’s Jack Ma Warns of ‘Big Trade War’ Between China, US

E-commerce giant Alibaba's founder Jack Ma has warned of a "big trade war" between China and the US under the new Trump Presidency if conflicts were not dealt properly. He said China's economic outlook will be "tougher than expected" due to continued slowdown of Chinese economy and warned. "In the coming three to five years... the economic situation will be even more arduous than everyone had expected," the e-commerce billionaire said at an annual meeting of the General Association of Zhejiang Entrepreneurs. Referring to the slowdown of the Chinese economy to 6.7 percent last year, the slowest in over two decades, he said it was "only natural" that China's rapid growth over the past three decades could not continue, and that the focus should be shifted to the quality of growth such a...
Alibaba Led UCWeb to Invest Rs 200 Cr in India
BUSINESS, CHINA

Alibaba Led UCWeb to Invest Rs 200 Cr in India

Alibaba Mobile Business Group firm UCWeb plans to invest Rs 200 crore in India and Indonesia over the next two years to push distribution of user generated content through its UC News platform. "We will invest Rs 200 crore over the period of 2 years in India and Indonesia to push user generated content like blogs, short videos, non conventional news feeds. Around 60 percent of it (Rs 120 crore) will be invested in India," Kenny Ye, General Manager, Overseas Business for Alibaba Mobile Business Group told Pixr8. He said that the earmarked investment does not include hiring and other business expenditure but will focus only on content generation and distribution. "We will provide people with We Media platform where anyone can register and start publishing content. We are seeing huge...
Alibaba Paid $3.41 Billion in Taxes, Creates 30 Million Jobs
CHINA

Alibaba Paid $3.41 Billion in Taxes, Creates 30 Million Jobs

China's e-commerce giant Alibaba paid a total of USD 3.41 billion in taxes in 2016 and created 30 million jobs, the company said. Alibaba led merchants operating on its platforms, upstream manufacturers and logistics companies to pay at least 200 billion yuan in taxes last year and created more than 30 million jobs, it said. The company has also catalysed new business such as outsourcing of customer service, product photography, quality testing, e-shop design, recruitment and training for e-commerce, it said in a statement. There are over 45,000 such service providers on Alibaba's shopping platforms, Taobao and Tmall, the company said, adding those service providers had registered 142-per cent growth in income year on year as of September 30. Alibaba and its financial branch paid ...
Alibaba Blames Trump Led US Politics For Its Blacklisting For Fake Goods
CHINA, News

Alibaba Blames Trump Led US Politics For Its Blacklisting For Fake Goods

China's e-commerce giant Alibaba has rejected US allegations that it sells counterfeit goods, saying the Washington's move to put it back on a blacklist of its "notorious markets" could be influenced by the "current political climate" in America. Questioning the US move, Alibaba Group President Michael Evans said he was "disappointed" by the decision and wondered whether it was "based on actual facts or was influenced by the current political climate." US President-elect Donald Trump had, during his campaign, repeatedly accused Chinese firms of stealing intellectual property. The US has again labeled Alibaba Group Holding Ltd as one of the world's largest destinations for fake goods, a major embarrassment for a Chinese e-commerce giant trying to shake off its reputation as a haven fo...
US Blacklists Chinese E-commerce Giant Alibaba For Fake Product Selling
CHINA, USA

US Blacklists Chinese E-commerce Giant Alibaba For Fake Product Selling

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group is back on the US government's annual list of "notorious markets" that sell pirated goods. The Office of the US Trade Representative said yesterday that Alibaba's on-line marketplace Taobao sells "high levels" of counterfeit goods and is slow to respond when companies complain about the knockoffs. USTR took Alibaba off the blacklist in 2012, but several US trade groups successfully sought to get it reinstated. "There are a lot of victims here," including US companies that lose sales to fakes and consumers who wind up with shoddy goods, said Stephen Lamar, executive vice president at the American Apparel & Footwear Association, which wanted Alibaba back on the list. Alibaba Group President Michael Evans said the company is "disappointed." ...
Has Demonetization Really Helped In Growth Of Paytm?
News

Has Demonetization Really Helped In Growth Of Paytm?

December 9, 2016- Now wherever we go, whether its small shops or a big store, we see a Scanning code on the wall with "Paytm logo" which says PAYTM KARO. Paytm is an online payment transaction company that has been highly popular after the "Demonetization". After the Demonetization news was announced, on the next morning Paytm ads were carried on the first page of major newspapers of India. So the common question arises "Does really Paytm have gained beneficiary after demonetization"? As per sources, Paytm was seeking to raise money in August at a valuation of $5 billion. After demonetization Paytm transaction touched 5 million in a day regularly. Paytm transaction total hit Rs 24,000 crore a day and the company registered a 700% increase in overall traffic and 1000%percent growth to Pa...
Alibaba Backed Out To Acquire Indian E-commerce Firm Snapdeal
News

Alibaba Backed Out To Acquire Indian E-commerce Firm Snapdeal

China's Alibaba Group Holding is not buying Indian e-commerce company Snapdeal and is not in talks to do so, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday, dampening talk that an acquisition was in the works. Rumour rumour on the wall, which troll did you callYou said sold, they said bought, but whoever listened to you didn't get diddly squat.— Kunal Bahl (@1kunalbahl) December 1, 2016 Hangzhou, China-based Alibaba was also in talks with Flipkart for a potential buyout but it seems like the talks have fallen through as Alibaba takes an interest in acquiring Snapdeal, which has raised over $1.76 billion in 12 funding rounds. Alibaba had already invested in India's leading online payment platform Paytm in September 2015, also acquired 40% stake. A strategy likely t...
Alibaba Rakes Up Record $17.6 Billion on Singles Day Sales
CHINA, News

Alibaba Rakes Up Record $17.6 Billion on Singles Day Sales

Alibaba Group, the e-commerce giant behind the 24-hour Singles' Day shopping blitz, has raked up a record USD 17.6 billion in the Singles Day online sales, creating a new record in global retail sales for any single day. Consumers spent more than 120 billion yuan (USD 17.6 billion) shopping online on leading e-commerce platform Alibaba in their annual buying spree yesterday, sources with Alibaba Group said today. Online transactions totaled 120.748 billion yuan in the 24 hours that ended as the clocks struck 12PM yesterday, a record amount in global retail for any single day, data provided by Alibaba said. The shopping spree hit a climactic high just nine minutes after midnight on Friday morning, with an average 120,000 transactions handled per second on Alipay, Alibaba's mobile pa...
Alibaba Sales Soars, Revenue Beats Expectations With Strong E-commerce Growth
CHINA

Alibaba Sales Soars, Revenue Beats Expectations With Strong E-commerce Growth

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's sales soared 55 percent in the last quarter, thanks in part to a more than doubling of revenue from cloud computing, the company said today. The year-on-year growth in group sales, to 34.29 billion yuan (USD 5.14 billion), was not matched by net profit, which slide down 66 percent to 7.62 billion yuan (USD 1.14 billion). The drop was mostly due to an unfavourable comparison, as last year the firm booked an exceptional gain linked to the re-evaluation of its participation in one unit. "Alibaba Group had a great quarter," chief executive Daniel Zhang said in a statement on the firm's second quarter, which ended in September. "Our results reflect our increasing ability to monetise our 450 million mobile users through new and innovative social commerce ...
Alibaba’s $60 Billion Finance Arm Seeks Growth Before IPO: Sources
CHINA

Alibaba’s $60 Billion Finance Arm Seeks Growth Before IPO: Sources

Investors gearing up for the initial public offering of Ant Financial, the $60 billion online finance arm spun off by e-commerce giant Alibaba, will have to wait until at least late 2017 as the business puts growth first, sources say. Sources with knowledge of the plans said Ant Financial, whose anchor business is Alipay, China's largest online payments service, is focusing on expanding its existing 450 million-strong army of daily users, adding merchants and customers. Ant had yet to contact Chinese regulators to start the lengthy listing process and join a queue of more than 700 companies waiting to list. In addition to online payments, Ant Financial also offers services from wealth management to credit scoring, micro lending and insurance. Alibaba Group set up Alipay in 2004 in th...