Update | Alibaba’s annual transaction volume surges past 3 trillion yuan
E-commerce group is bringing in more quality foreign brands, targeting growth among China’s rural population
Chinese e-commerce juggernaut Alibaba Group has sold 3 trillion yuan (HK$3.59 trillion) of goods through its online shopping platforms ahead of the fiscal year ending March, as the company wooed rural consumers and stepped up efforts to bring in foreign brands, according to a senior executive.
“If the platforms we operate were a province, we would rank as the 6th largest provincial economy in China,” said Joe Tsai, Alibaba executive vice chairman in a post on Alibaba’s blog, Alizila. The e-commerce giant has bought the South China Morning Post.
Tsai said in the blog post that Alibaba plans to bring in more quality foreign goods and brands onto its shopping platforms, and continue expanding its Rural Taobao initiative to encourage the rural population to buy and sell items on its marketplaces.
With China growing at its slowest pace in a quarter-century, Alibaba has concentrated on tapping the spending power of the half of the population that live outside of the main cities.
“The shift toward consumption and services is a massive transformation that will drive a new Chinese economy for years to come,” Tsai wrote. “At the heart of this new economy is Alibaba.”