Alibaba to take on Amazon, opening business-to-business services to US companies
- Push comes as Chinese giant, which operates the world’s largest e-commerce platform, seeks ways to expand its business internationally
Alibaba Group opened its business-to-business (B2B) online marketplace to US companies on Tuesday, taking on its US rival Amazon.com as part of the Chinese e-commerce giant’s plan to grow its market share internationally.
In a further push to grow its business outside China, the Alibaba.com platform will let US manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers sell their products and services to other American and global businesses and wholesalers.
Alibaba’s American depositary shares (ADS) rose 1.4 per cent Tuesday morning to US$176.15 in New York following the announcement. Last week, the company’s shareholders overwhelmingly approved a 1-to-8 split of the ADS in preparation for its listings in Hong Kong.
The announcement on Tuesday came a year after US President Donald Trump began a trade war against China by instituting the first of several rounds of tariffs on Chinese exports. Tensions between the two countries have since risen, with confrontations expanding to other trade and economic issues, academic research and, particularly, technology.
As a result, the US government has tightened laws for Chinese investors to buy US assets and for US companies to export technology to China, fearing potential national security threats.
“In spite of the geopolitical tensions between China and the US, we continue to build our US business, carefully,” said Alibaba Group President Michael Evans in New York on Monday.