Chinese e-commerce giants Alibaba Group is evaluating options to enter Indian e-commerce industry in 2016.
Alibaba is planning to enter in to the market as a standalone entity and run parallel to its investments in existing players such as Paytm and Snapdeal.
Alibaba has also approached Tata sons Ltd for a possible partnership- given that they are the best match for Alibaba given the scale and capabilities. Tata Sons Chairman emeritus Ratan Tata also happens to be the investor in Paytm and Snapdeal, where Alibaba holds significant shares.
Alibaba Group president Michael Evans and global managing director K Guru Gowrappan met IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday and expressed company’s interest in investing in Indian e-commerce sector.
Ravi Shankar Prasad has assured that Alibaba would be given full cooperation.
“They’re most welcome to adopt the same (online and offline) strategy in India, too,” said Prasad.
When NextBigWhat team asked about marketplace and investment strategies, Paytm officials refused to comment anything on it.
But, as per reports Paytm is in talks with Alibaba Group for an additional investment of $300-400 million, and, Paytm is also contemplating to spin off it’s online marketplace to allow Alibaba establish a direct presence and organically expand in India.
If successful then Alibaba will take Flipkart, Snapdeal and American Amazon head-to-head in worlds fastest growing e-commerce market.
