Alibaba Buys Controlling Stake Of Lazada SEA

Alibaba is the biggest ecommerce website in China and one of the most developed in the world. Recently, we were surprised when the news broke out that Alibaba bought the controlling stake of Lazada South East Asia for USD 1 Billion.

Alibaba Lazada South East Asia

Lazada is the fastest growing and probably the largest in South East Asia. The acquisition makes sense as Alibaba has no presence in the region. In that way they can penetrate that fast growing market in the following countries that include  Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

“With the investment in Lazada, Alibaba gains access to a platform with a large and growing consumer base outside China, a proven management team and a solid foundation for future growth in one of the most promising regions for eCommerce globally,” Alibaba president Michael Evans said.

“Southeast Asia is an attractive mobile-driven consumer market that is highly fragmented and diverse with significant barriers to entry and a nascent modern retail sector that has large headroom for growth,” added Max Bittner, CEO of Lazada Group. “The transaction will help us to accelerate our goal to provide the 560 million consumers in the region access to the broadest and most unique assortment of products. Furthermore, leveraging Alibaba’s unique knowhow and technology will allow us to rapidly improve our services and provide an even more effortless shopping and selling experience.”

What could this mean for us?

There's a lot of great things that could happen here. With the help of Alibaba they can help improve Lazada overall. Their services should be better, smoother and will have less hassle. What we're excited about this acquisition is more and more selection of goods will be available in Lazada soon.

It means that more and more brands like Elephone and etc. may now reach the shores of the participating countries.

Source (1,2)