Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

After great success in Southeast Asia, Alibaba's e-commerce platform Lazada is preparing to enter the European market to challenge European and American competitors such as Amazon and German ecommerce Zalando, according to news on September 1.

"Europe is obviously a very big market and for most European brands, considering their sales in China and other markets, their biggest retail partner is Alibaba," Dong Zheng, chief executive of Lazada, said in an interview in Singapore. We want to go where the brand wants us to go. "

Affected by macroeconomic challenges and specific market conditions, Dong Zheng declined to disclose the timetable of Lazada's plan to enter the European market, nor did he specify which European countries he would enter first. Dong Zheng, a former business assistant to Alibaba's chief executive, Zhang Yong, took charge of Alibaba's entire international business in June after running Lazada's operations in Thailand and Vietnam.

Lazada's foray into the European market will mark Alibaba's renewed global ambitions. Alibaba's pace of global expansion has slowed in recent years in the face of fierce competition from Amazon and Sea. The company's overseas performance has also been mixed.

Alibaba set up a subsidiary called 11 Main to test the waters of US retail before going public in 2014, but soon sold the niche e-commerce site. Alibaba gained a foothold in Southeast Asia by controlling Lazada in 2016.

Now, Alibaba is once again determined to revive the company by opening up overseas markets. Lazada is arguably its most successful attempt abroad recently, keeping pace with AliExpress, a cross-border ecommerce platform that is popular in emerging markets such as Brazil.

Lazada's growing investment is in sharp contrast to its main competitor, Shopee. Shopee, the ecommerce arm of Sea, has been shrinking its business after years of actively driving growth outside Southeast Asia, from Brazil to Poland. Shopee withdrew from France and India in March. Just a few months ago, the company began to operate in these markets in an attempt to improve profitability.

Sea has suffered a series of setbacks this year, including the sudden ban of its most popular mobile game in India. The company's shares have tumbled about 70 per cent this year as global stock markets have slumped and investor interest in growth stocks has waned. Sea has said it plans to focus on south-east Asia and Brazil rather than investing heavily in new markets.

At the same time, Lazada has been investing in businesses such as Dana, an Indonesian digital wallet provider. Lazada invested a total of $304.5 million, according to securities trading filings. At the same time, the company also led the financing of TNG Digital Sdn.7.5 billion ringgit (about $168 million), the parent company of Touch'n Go, Malaysia's largest e-wallet company.

Lazada continues to invest and plans to add hundreds of employees in Indonesia and expand its office space in Jakarta in the coming months to drive growth in Southeast Asia's largest and most important market. Lazada was founded 10 years ago and currently operates in six countries, including Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Alibaba hopes that Lazada will serve more than 300 million users by 2030, double the current 150 million users.

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