China’s Alibaba.com Targets More U.S. Acquisitions
Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) -- David Wei, chief executive officer of Alibaba.com Ltd., talks about the company's financial results and growth strategy. Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce company partly owned by billionaire George Soros, said second-quarter profit rose 46 percent as a rebound in Chinese exports boosted product listings on its website. Wei speaks with Bloomberg's Rishaad Salamat in Hong Kong. (Source: Bloomberg)
Alibaba.com Ltd., the Chinese e- commerce operator partly owned by billionaire George Soros, is seeking to buy more U.S. companies to expand its overseas business, Chief Executive Officer David Wei said.
“The U.S. is the top priority in our investment list,” Wei said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Hong Kong today. In terms of users, Alibaba counts the U.S. as its biggest market outside China, Wei said.
Alibaba, used by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Procter & Gamble Co. to purchase goods, this year started an e-commerce site aimed at the U.S. market, and last month completed its first acquisition in the world’s biggest economy. Wei said his company isn’t trying to set up in direct competition with Amazon.com Inc. and EBay Inc.
“We go to help merchants on EBay and Amazon to improve their profit,” Wei said. “So far, we have no ambition to serve consumers in the U.S.”
The Chinese company last month completed its acquisition of San Mateo, California-based Vendio Services Inc. to boost its overseas business, Wei said. The purchase is part of the $100 million that Alibaba has set aside for investment in its AliExpress website, which is aimed at U.S. online merchants.
Quarterly Profit
Alibaba yesterday said second-quarter profit rose 46 percent to 363 million yuan ($53.6 million) as a rebound in Chinese exports boosted product listings on its website. That beat the 298.8 million yuan average of five analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
The Hangzhou, east China-based company rose 1.8 percent to close at HK$15.74 in Hong Kong trading today. The stock has declined 13 percent this year, compared with a 2.6 percent fall in the benchmark Hang Seng Index.
Alibaba added more than 51,000 customers for the China TrustPass program for marketing on its China website, the company said in its earnings statement yesterday. It also gained 5,100 subscribers to the company’s export-oriented China Gold Supplier program.
It’ll be “two to three years” before the AliExpress service is expected to contribute significantly to Alibaba’s earnings, Wei said.
Parent Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. this week agreed to invest in Sohu.com Inc.’s search-engine business, ranked by research company iResearch Inc. as the third-biggest in China behind Baidu Inc. and Google Inc.
The closely held parent company, whose biggest shareholder is Yahoo! Inc., also operates other Internet businesses including Taobao.com, China’s largest online retailing site, and Yahoo’s China website.
To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Lee in Hong Kong at wlee37@bloomberg.net
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