Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group (known locally as Hon Hai Precision Industry) and China’s Alibaba Group jointly announced a collaborative business plan during the annual Cloud Computing Conference in Hangzhou on October 14.
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Zhang, who spoke entirely in English during the briefing to demonstrate Alibaba’s determination to globalize, said this year’s November 11 will be the first truly “global shopping festival”.
“China is a huge market for us”, Choi said, citing examples of Chinese consumers on shopping frenzies in the ROK, with Emart stores in Seoul crammed with Chinese customers. Last year, Alibaba’s marketplaces generated a revenue of 7.4 billion euros on this day, an absolute record.
November 11th has been dubbed Singles Day here in China, as its 1-1-1-1 on a numeric calendar.
She also anticipated greater online-to-offline (O2O) sales support from Chinese electronics retailer Suning Commerce Group, in which Alibaba recently invested US$4.63 billion to take a roughly 20 per cent stake in the company, based in Nanjing in China’s eastern Jiangsu province.
Also vying for the Chinese market is Macy’s.
Singles Day originated from Nanjing University, where students held the first “11/11” parties in the early 1990s. Traceability is the focus of the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival promotion, which highlights the T-Mall Blue Star Program.
Of the more than 30,000 brands signed up this year, about 5,000 are overseas-based brands from 25 countries. Such a strategy looks relatively smart for JD.com, whose smaller size means it still has plenty of room for growth in its home market as it aims to steal share from Alibaba and other smaller rivals.
Alibaba President Michael Evans said the offices, set to be opened in the coming months, were Alibaba’s latest moves to expand the company’s presence in Europe, the United States, Asia and elsewhere.
He estimated that more than 350 million Chinese consumers are active shoppers on Alibaba’s online retail platforms. The embassies will help “the world to sell to China, and …”
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Alibaba Group Holding Ltd will be soon be opening offices in Italy, France and Germany, a senior executive said on Tuesday, as the Chinese e-commerce giant ramps up global expansion efforts amid slowing Chinese economic growth.
