Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is to acquire a $1bn controlling stake in the Southeast Asian online shopping platform Lazada which sells everything from rice cookers to smartphones on its e-commerce platforms across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, it announced today. The acquisition comes as Alibaba looks to use its $3.7bn cash pile to expand its international footprint.
While Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmail platforms are estimated to command more than 90% and over 50% of the Chinese consumer-to-consumer and business-to consumer markets respectively, its international business only accounted for 6% of its Q4 2016 revenues according to the company’s accounts.
Source: dailysabah