[ad_1]
VLADIVOSTOK, Russia – Chinese e-commerce giant
Alibaba Group Holding
Ltd.
BABA -3.70%
agreed to take a 10% stake in one of Russia's largest technology players, as part of a broader agreement that will create what Alibaba and its new Russian partners see as the largest online sales platform in Russia. country.
The challenge of
Mail.Ru Group
,
MLRYY 1.14%
One of the first and most ambitious internet providers in Russia is around $ 484 million, according to Mail.Ru's market assessment on Monday. The company's worldwide trading certificates, traded in London, rose more than 9% earlier on Tuesday after the deal was released.
It's a modest investment, in a relatively small market, for Alibaba. It is nevertheless an exceptional strategic partnership between the Chinese and Chinese giants of technology. Both companies have been instrumental in creating local alternatives to the Western Internet, dominated by the titans of the
Facebook
Inc.
and
Amazon.com
Inc.
The agreement was issued in Vladivostok, Russia, while Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
"Russian-Chinese technology cooperation is one of the most promising avenues for bilateral relations," said Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russian investment fund Russian Direct Investment Fund, one of the shareholders of the new joint venture. venture.
Mail.Ru was launched in the late 1990s in the form of a simple email service, but he became a colossus of the Russian Internet. It owns the most popular social network of Russia, Vkontakte. Through Vkontakte and other networks and social platforms, Mail.Ru claims to reach 90% of Russian Internet users at least once a month.
As part of the deal, Alibaba agreed to take a 48% stake in a new e-commerce joint venture, AliExpress Russia. The remainder of the new venture will be owned by Mail.Ru, MegaFon, the second largest telecommunications company in Russia, and RDIF, the Russian sovereign fund. Alibaba will receive the 10% stake in MegaFon in Mail.Ru as part of the transaction.
The joint venture will provide Alibaba's 600 million online merchants with access to nearly 100 million Vkontakte users from Mail.Ru, the partners said. Shareholders said all payments would be processed in Russia, while most of the traded products will likely be imported from China.
"This will create a new ecommerce ecosystem, which will improve choice and access to products for Russian consumers," said Boris Dobrodeev, managing director of Mail.Ru. "In Russia, there has not been a major local player in e-commerce. It will be the only one.
While the exact form of the company remains under discussion, AliExpress Russia shareholders have stated that they are considering a consumer-driven platform similar to Amazon.com or
Alphabet
Inc.
Google in the United States
"This is a big step forward for the Russian digital market," said Alibaba President Michael Evans. He said the deal had received the blessing of the company's outgoing founder, Jack Ma. Earlier this week, Ma said he was leaving his position as executive chairman of Alibaba.
According to Dobrodeev, the penetration of e-commerce in Russia is still around 3%, against about 15% in China. Western online shopping giants like Amazon and
Walmart
Inc.
have a limited presence in Russia, creating opportunities for a local champion, he said.
-Robert Wall in London contributed to this article.
Write to Anatoly Kurmanaev at [email protected]
Source link
