Alibaba president J. Michael Evans recently told Indian local media that the group plans to enter the Indian e-commerce market in 2016.
According to Evans, they are looking for e-commerce opportunities in the Indian market and feel excited to enter this marketplace. He revealed that Alibaba is evaluating various opportunities of building organized businesses; meanwhile, they are also seeking other deals.
Evans said they had already invested in the payment and e-commerce sectors in India and they will have a detailed strategy in 2017. Alibaba previously invested in Paytm, a third-party payment platform, and Snapdeal, a local e-commerce platform, in India.
Ravi Shankar Prasad, minister of Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of India, said that they hope that Alibaba could enter India and have a smooth development in the country. He emphasized that Alibaba would have complete freedom regarding business development in India. Prasad also explained that the Indian e-commerce sector is flourishing with a growth rate of over 60%.
In November 2014, founder of Alibaba Jack Ma visited India for the first time. He expressed intention to increase investment in India at that time and said he wanted to cooperate with Indian companies and experts to improve the relationship between China and India.