27.11.14

Jack Ma in India

Alibaba's Jack Ma has given the clearest indication yet that the world's largest ecommerce group is ready for a bigger play in India's online retail industry, likely making the country one of the fiercest battlegrounds for global consumer Internet companies.
Ma, speaking at an event organised by business grouping Ficci, pledged to invest “more“ in India, and he said that he would be back again soon, signalling Alibaba's interest in di versifying its business here. “We will invest more in India and work with Indian entrepreneurs and technologists to improve the relationship of the two nations and to improve the lives of human beings,“ said an beings,“ said Ma, Alibaba's founder, who is China's wealthiest man with an estimated net worth of $30 billion. “I was a college teacher. The Internet changed me and it changed China. India is a great nation with so many young people, and the Internet will change India too,“ he said at a `business cooperation' conference involving his home province Zhejiang in eastern China.
Flipkart, founded by IIT-Delhi graduates Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, is the market leader in India, but it is dwarfed by Alibaba, which only sells to businesses here, as well as US-based Amazon, which is scaling up retail operations rapidly. In its latest round of funding, Flipkart was valued at $7 billion, compared with a market cap of $155 billion for Amazon and $282 billion for Alibaba.
In September, Alibaba listed on the New York Stock Exchange, raising $25 billion in the largest public market debut in history.
Just a day after Flipkart won $1 billion in funding in July , Amazon vowed to invest double that amount in India, illustrating the importance of a market where 300 million people are already online out of a population of 1.2 billion. Nomura estimates that India's ecommerce market will be worth $43 billion by 2019, of which online retail will account for $23 billion.
Ma said he is meeting several Indian entrepreneurs, but did not provide details. But Kunal Bahl, the founder of Snapdeal that competes against Amazon and Flipkart, is one of them, according to people aware of the specifics of Ma's visit. Japan's SoftBank is an investor in both Alibaba and Snapdeal. “Yes, I am meeting some businessmen, and will be back in India soon,“ Ma, 50, said.
India does not allow foreign investment in online retail, but Alibaba's model of not owning inventory but only providing a marketplace means it will face no policy roadblocks in India.
Alibaba.com India Ecommerce, the Indian unit of Alibaba, made a profit of around Rs.1 crore on sales of Rs.20 crore in the year ended March 2013, according to the latest financial numbers available with the Registrar of Companies. More than 1.3 million suppliers are listed on Alibaba's Indian website, second just to its home market China's 8.2 million.
“Sellers from India are ranked just behind Chinese traders. Our platform was never designed for them (Indian SMEs), but their capabilities in taking advantage of opportunities is fantastic, and we have to build platforms to ensure more of them use it,“ said Ma.About PM Narendra Modi, he said, “I have heard the prime minister's speech and it is very passionate and inspiring.“Over the next three years, one of the key strategies for Alibaba is to globalise,“ he said.

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