Alibaba, Russian tech firm Mail.ru agree joint e-commerce endeavor

(FILES) This file picture taken on September 9, 2014 shows a woman walking past the Alibaba booth during an exhibition in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang province. Alibaba co-founder and chairman Jack Ma announced on September 10, 2018, he would step down as leader of the pioneering Chinese e-commerce giant in one year but stressed that a planned leadership transition would not break the company's stride. Ma will stay on as executive chairman until September 10, 2019 before handing over his role to chief executive officer Daniel Zhang, Alibaba said in a statement. / AFP PHOTO / STR / China OUT
Agence France-Presse Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and Russian innovation group Mail.ru

on Tuesday said they would release a joint e-commerce venture in Russia and former Soviet countries.The deal comes as e-commerce is developing quickly in Russia though hindered by the country’s large size and problematic facilities, consisting of a typically undependable postal service.The two groups, together with the Russian sovereign wealth fund RDIF and telecom operator MegaFon, announced the production of a”strategic collaboration”as Russia hosts an economic forum in the far eastern city of Vladivostok.Alibaba and Mail.ru stated in a statement that the

partnership will”release a leading social commerce joint endeavor in Russia and the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States).”The brand-new business will be called AliExpress Russia– based upon the name of an existing Alibaba platform.It will be 48 percent owned by Alibaba, 24 percent by

MegaFon, 15 percent by Mail.ru and 13 percent by the RDIF, the declaration said, without disclosing any valuations involved.Russia’s RBK media group reported that the RDIF would invest as much as$300 million. The deal includes MegaFon offering Alibaba its 10 percent stake in Mail.ru.Alibaba, co-founded by tech billionaire Jack Ma in 1999, reported earnings of $39.9 billion for the year ending March.It already plays a significant role in e-commerce in Russia through its AliExpress and Tmall platforms.Ma announced Monday that he will step down as head of Alibaba in a year’s time.On Tuesday Ma went to a meeting of

global business individuals with President Vladimir Putin at the Eastern Economic Online Forum in Vladivostok, however was not at the press conference revealing the deal. “We desire this to be a Russian company,

“Alibaba Group president Michael Evans said at journalism conference.”What we bring from China is all the experience that

we have and the technology that we have “from building e-commerce, cloud and payment businesses, Evans stated.–‘Advancement for Russia’– Kirill Dmitriyev, general director

of the RDIF, stated the Russian partners

would have a combined 52 percent share in the brand-new structure.He stated the platform will utilize Russian payment systems and provide local businesses access to more than 600 million Alibaba users around the world.Mail.ru, whose assets consist of Russia’s most popular social networks network VK, is managed by Kremlin-friendly billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who until last month owned a minority stake in Britain’s Arsenal football club.In 2017 Mail.ru launched a platform called Pandao offering Chinese goods to Russian customers. This will now enter into AliExpress Russia.Usmanov was priced quote as stating in a statement that the new partnership is a “considerable step for the digital transformation of the Russian economy. “Mail.ru’s CEO Boris Dobrodeyev stated at journalism conference on Tuesday that the deal will give the other partners access to the group’s more than 100 million users, hailing this as a” development for Russia’s digital economy”. The deal follows Russia’s biggest customer bank Sberbank and internet business Yandex revealed an e-commerce tie-up in August, with the bank set to invest around$500 million in Yandex’s internet marketplace platform Yandex.Market.Get more stories like this on

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