Alibaba, the world’s biggest online retail platform based in China, has invested in more than 50 companies around the world this year. Jack Ma, Chairman of Alibaba, looks forward to take 50 percent of Alibab’s revenue outside china. Now it seems Ma is doing it with billions of dollars of investments in companies outside of China.
However, majority of Alibab’s investments this year are in Chinese companies. That’s a very convenient approach to start with but over the time Alibaba aims to take over the world and we can see a direction of that in their 2015 investment trends.
In this list we tried to put together a list of few outside China companies Alibaba invested in 2015.
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Snapdeal: $ 500 million with softBank and Fexconn
Country: India
Industry: Ecommerce
In August, 2015 Snapdeal, Alibaba of India, has raised US$ 500 from combined forces of Alibaba, SoftBank and Foxconn. Though exact contribution was not unveiled by any of three parties, it is apparent that Alibaba is in the game strongly.
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SingPost-Singapore Government’s Postal and logistic Services: $138 million
Country: Singapore
Industry: Logistics
Last year Alibaba invested US$ 250 million in SingPost. This year injected US$138 more, the second largest amount of investment at SingPost after Singapore telecommunication.
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Kabam: $120 million
Country: USA
Industry: Gaming
Invested US$120 million in Kabam, a US based mobile gaming company. Kabam makes games for the famous movies like-Fast and Furious and Hobbit. “Dragons of Atlantic” is there famous game in 2014. This San Francisco based company has already presence in China for some time. This investment makes sense since Kabam is expanding in China.
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Jet.me: $140 million
Country: USA
Industry: Ecommerce
In February 2015, jet.me announced that it raised investment from a strategic partner. But in April, it came out in a Forbes report that Alibaba secretly participated in the round. However, exact figure of investment was not disclosed by either party.
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One97 Communications: $680 Million with Ant Financial
Country: India
Industry: Mobile Payment
One97 Communication is the payment company of Paytm, prominent e-commerce and mobile wallet app in India, Since Alibaba is hopping to launch mobile financial services in India through Paytm it just tossed US$680 Million with Ant Financial in One97 communications.
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Snapchat: US $200
Country: USA
Industry: Social Media
Alibaba invested US$200 million in Snapchat, in March, 2015 in a most unpredictable funding round.
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SoftBank Robotics: $118 million with Foxconn
Country: Japan
Industry: Robotics
SoftBank Robotics, SoftBank Group's intermediate holding company responsible for its robotics business, develops robots and offers robot-related products and services, including “Pepper”. Alibaba invested $118 million in the company, another same amount coming from Foxconn.
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Alibaba’s empire is massive, but there is always room for expansion. With above investments and others investments within China, like: Mei.com (a luxury flash site), Suning (one of the China’s electronic retailers), and few more, Alibaba is aiming to control the entire world of online buying and selling things. The game is just about to start.
Sources: TechinAisa, Techcrunch, YourStory
