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Leaders
August/September 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 7
Alibaba and Mail.ru said to be forming e-commerce partnership
According to Kommersant’s sources, Alibaba Group, Mail.ru Group, and the Russian Direct Investment Fund are planning to launch a new e-commerce partnership aimed at the Russian market. This move may be a response to the recently announced e-commerce partnership between Yandex and Sberbank.
Alibaba needs to move fast and break things if it wants to secure a strong hold on Russia's e-trade market. The refusal of both sides to confirm that a partnership is in the works suggests a lot of backroom dealing, but the move makes sense. China's market is huge and Mail.ru won't find any takers in the West for a partnership to compete with Yandex. If Yandex and Sberbank make quick progress, expect more details to drop about Alibaba and Mail.ru ASAP.
Although the companies concerned have refused to officially confirm the rumors, multiple sources
have indicated to Kommersant that a partnership in in the works. Alibaba and Mail.ru already have individual e-commerce projects in the Russian market, but neither of them will be able to com- pete with Yandex on their own.
International e-commerce is one of the fastest- growing sectors in the Russian economy. One source predicts that the size of the market
will jump from RUB1 trillion ($15bn) in 2017
to RUB1.25 trillion ($19bn) in 2018. This rapid growth, along with the returns from scale, have pushed the market to consolidate quickly.
About a third of the Russian e-commerce market involves international trade, according to consul- tancy Data Insight. 90% of international e-com- merce destined for Russia comes from China, and most of that consists of orders less than €100 on AliExpress.