‘Taobao Queen’ leads the charge as Hong Kong fans of e-commerce platform get ready to spend big on Alibaba’s secondary listing

Stockbrokers set aside at least HK$120 billion for customers who want to borrow money to subscribe for Alibaba’s retail share offering

Application for Alibaba’s retail shares will be a fully electronic process, a first for Hong Kong

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Hangzhou-based Alibaba has been listed in New York since 2014. Photo: Reuters

Published: 10:22am, 15 Nov 2019Updated: 11:42pm, 15 Nov 2019

Cherry Lai plans to spend a six-digit figure on Alibaba Group Holding shares when its retail share offering in Hong Kong opens for subscription on Friday.

“My experience and spending record at Taobao proves the e-commerce giant has a very bright future,” she says. Known as the “Taobao Queen” among friends and family, Lai has over the past decade spent more than HK$4 million (US$510,903) on everything from toothbrushes to toys for her four dogs on the e-commerce platform operated by Hangzhou-based Alibaba.

The company, which owns the South China Morning Post, has been listed in New York since 2014. It hopes a secondary listing of up to US$13.86 billion worth of shares in Hong Kong will help it tap a loyal fan base – one that is crucially more familiar with its business – closer to home.

Lai, among the hundreds of millions of Taobao and Tmall.com users who helped Alibaba post a record 268.4 billion yuan (US$38.4 billion) in a 24-hour spending spree known as Singles’ Day on November 11, is the kind of customer the e-commerce giant wants to turn into a shareholder.

“I don’t have any US stock trading account, so I never thought of buying Alibaba shares in the US,” says Lai, who blogs as Taobao Queen on Facebook. “I’m so glad that it’s listing in Hong Kong. Now, I can buy its shares.”

“I spend about HK$30,000 to HK$40,000 on Taobao every month. As I spend so much [on the platform], it is a good idea for me to become a shareholder of the company and [take part] in its business growth,” she adds.

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