Alibaba increases investment in Lazada Group

Alibaba Group said today that it will invest an additional US$2 billion in the Southeast Asian online shopping platform Lazada Group to drive its integration into the Alibaba ecosystem as the e-commerce giant seeks to accelerate its growth plan in the Southeast Asia market.

Alibaba took a majority stake of Lazada in 2016 with an investment of US$1 billion and further increased its stake to 83 percent with another US$1 billion investment last year.

The investment is expected to enable Lazada to tap into Alibaba’s resources, which can help it better serve consumers and empower merchants in Southeast Asia.

The investment underlines Alibaba’s commitment to provide a broad platform for local talent in Southeast Asia to contribute to the development of the digital economy in their home markets, according to the statement by Alibaba.

Lazada's board of directors also approved a management transition where Lucy Peng, a co-founder of Alibaba Group and chairwoman of Alibaba's financial affiliate Ant Financial will assume the additional role of chief executive officer of Lazada to drive further growth strategies.

"Lazada is well-positioned for the next phase of development of Internet-enabled commerce in this region, and we are excited about the incredible opportunities for supercharged growth," Peng said in a statement.

Chinese Internet companies are seeking global perspective, hoping overseas nations especially Southeast Asian countries where online shopping penetration is relatively low would offer new growth potential in the coming years.

The leading car-hailing and ride-sharing application Didi Chuxing is also eyeing collaboration in overseas markets and investing in foreign online transportation service platforms to seek development synergies. 

Last year, Ant Financial, acquired Singapore-based payment service helloPay Group,the payment subsidiary of Lazada Group to boost its payment brand and presence in Southeast Asia.

Ant Financial also tied up with Indonesia’s Elang Mahkota Teknologi (Emtek) to roll out a mobile payment service.