Deals
Frugal Russians Fuel Alibaba’s Global Push Before IPO
This article is for subscribers only.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the dominant online shopping platform in China, is tapping demand from the bargain hunters next door as it tries to show potential investors a business model that can succeed abroad.
AliExpress, an Alibaba site for users outside China, more than tripled its monthly visitors in Russia to 15.9 million during the past year, vaulting past local Ozon.ru’s 8.5 million users and EBay Inc.’s 8.2 million, to become the No. 1 shopping site, according to researcher TNS. AliExpress also broke into the top 10 of most-visited websites in Russia in July.