Page 53 - Cross-Border Magazine Nr.3

THE

ALLIANCES

OF ALIBABA

Text: Janine Nöthlichs // Photos: Alibaba Inc.

In today’s e-commerce universe, nobody can surpass Alibaba anymore. It sounds like a fairy
tale come true: Jack Ma, a simple boy, becomes an English teacher and eventually discovers a
thing called the internet. Later, he will found the largest e-commerce company the world has
seen to date. All that happened in China, a country that has only recently opened up its mar-

ket for free entrepreneurship and foreign imports. Alibaba has grown to be the world’s largest
retailer, and filed a historic IPO in 2013. The strategy seems clear: “You can’t beat us, so come
join us”. Who can beat a strong player with an even stronger network? With its smartly chosen
strategic alliances, Alibaba is gradually expanding its influence around the globe.

strong home base name for Singles’ Day, in 2016 reached a stunning turnover
First and foremost, Alibaba is operating from a strong of €16.8bn ($17.8bn), receiving orders from 235 countries,
A home base: China is the world’s leading e-commerce selling merchandise of US, European, Australian and Japanese
market. Recent figures by the Chinese National Bureau of brands including Nike, Playboy, Adidas, Siemens, UGG and
Statistics revealed that e-commerce sales generated ¥5.16 Panasonic.
trillion (€700bn, $751bn) in 2016. The growth rate amounted
to 26.2%, which is twice the growth rate of Chinese retail in Despite the enormous success, Alibaba believes that they can-
general. However, Alibaba has always successfully looked be- not succeed all by themselves. The company increasingly makes
yond borders. Starting off as a wholesale platform and gateway agreements and alliances in a number of strategic fields that
to other countries, the company also focuses more than ever strengthen their position in China, in cross-border e-commerce
on reaching global consumers and involving global brands. and towards a broad mainstream audience. We took a closer look
Alibaba’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, which is the official at these partnerships.

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