Alibaba buys the South China Morning Post: Full Q&A with executive vice chairman Joseph Tsai
In a wide-ranging interview, Joseph Tsai, executive vice chairman of Alibaba Group, explains the thinking behind the e-commerce giant’s decision to buy the 112-year-old South China Morning Post newspaper, and all its other media assets. Removing the paper’s paywall and ensuring objective, balanced and fair reporting continues, as well as pouring more investment into the product were among the key principles he shared with executive editor, Chow Chung Yan.
Why does Alibaba want to buy SCMP? What value do you see in us?
SCMP is a unique property. It's the English-language paper of record. It's the only English-language paper in Hong Kong that everybody will read for that matter. It's uniquely positioned because from the vantage point of Hong Kong you can cover China very well. And SCMP has been able to build up this journalistic and editorial capability to cover China - the Chinese economy, Chinese society, etc. That is a unique vantage point that none of the western organisations have. We see this as a great opportunity to create a unique product. Our vision for SCMP is to build a global readership. It is not just for expats or senior executives or companies in Hong Kong, but it is for anybody who cares to know more about China and to understand China - whether you are in New York City or London or Sydney or anywhere where English is spoken, the content of SCMP should be available. So we are very excited to take on this responsibility of ownership. Even though some say the newspaper industry is a sunset industry, we don't see it that way. We see it as an opportunity to use our technological expertise, and use our digital assets and know-how to distribute news in a way that has never been done before.
How does this deal fit into your global business plan? What are the synergies between Alibaba Group and SCMP?
We are publicly traded in New York. Since our IPO, we increasingly feel it is very important for our constituencies outside China, for example our shareholders, the brands that we work with, governments outside China, places where we operate - we have all these constituencies - that want to understand more about Alibaba's business. We want them to understand, including SMEs outside China. Because the core of Alibaba's business, the core of our consumer market is still very much in China. Sometimes people don't understand the company that well. We feel that if people understand China better, they will understand our company better. That's how it fits into our strategy - SCMP is uniquely positioned to help people around the world to understand China better. What is good for that understanding is also good for understanding Alibaba.
SCMP is 112 years old. Mr Ma will be our first owner with a mainland Chinese background. Given the present political atmosphere in Hong Kong, there is already concern about Beijing trying to rein in Hong Kong's media through media ownership by Chinese business tycoons. How will you address these concerns?