Alibaba ramps up global e-commerce expansion with launch of English Tmall portal
- Tmall Global also plans to introduce other foreign-language sites, including Spanish, Japanese and Korean
Alibaba Group Holding is ramping up its international e-commerce expansion with the launch of an English-language portal on Tmall, a move that is expected to double the number of global brands on its flagship retail site.
The English-language portal on Tmall Global, China’s largest cross-border online shopping platform, was launched on Wednesday with the goal to lure more merchants and businesses from around the world to sell high-quality imported products to consumers in the world’s second largest economy, according to a statement from New York-listed Alibaba.
The company confirmed that it aimed to double the number of foreign brands on Tmall Global to 40,000 in three years, up from about 20,000 to date.
“Tmall Global’s mission is to connect high-quality international brands across the globe with Chinese consumers,” said Yi Qian, the platform’s deputy general manager. “The [new English-language] website will widen our reach to merchants, especially to those medium- and small-sized businesses around the world.”
The move comes more than a month after Alibaba, the parent company of the South China Morning Post, projected that its annual revenue will surpass 500 billion yuan (US$72.7 billion) this financial year, despite a trade war between the US and China.