Alibaba to push global expansion, says new CEO
Thu 14 May 2015
Chinese e-retail group Alibaba has emphasised the importance of driving its globalisation strategy should it be serious about the success of cross-border sales and recruitment.
CEO Daniel Zhang announced yesterday at a strategy meeting at Alibaba HQ, that the e-commerce giant would be pushing its international expansion efforts.
“We will organise a global team and adopt global thinking to manage the business, and achieve the goal of ‘global buy and global sell’,” he added in an official post.
As part of these expansion plans, Zhang referred to sales platform AliExpress which allows users to sell Chinese products abroad, as well as Tmall Global, a similar service which supports foreign brands better reach the Chinese market.
Zhang also explained that the company would prioritise international hiring. “We will have employees from all over the world that look different from each other,” he said. “We have to take the time to understand them to understand their habits, cultural differences and way of thinking. This is how we become truly an international company,” he continued.
Although Alibaba is the world’s largest e-commerce group by transactions, it has remained heavily focused on targeting Chinese consumers. It has started to make tracks into the U.S. market, most recently acquiring a 9% stake in online retail business Zulily. The firm also invested in U.S. e-retailer ShopRunner in 2013 which guarantees delivery in two days.
Zhang also spoke about the shift to a mobile-orientated world and the need for innovation in cloud computing which it would support through the development of its Aliyun platform.
He added that Alimama, the company’s electronic-advertising platform, has focused on the Chinese market for “too long.”
“We hope that after a few years of hard work, Alimama will not just serve [Chinese] e-commerce customers but have the means to use internet marketing to target customers from all walks of life,” he said.
