Alibaba Teams up With China's Largest Telcom, Aims To Sell Smartphones To Rural Customers

Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, aims to cater rural areas of China instead of markets in overseas in its near term expansion.

Latest ALIBABA news is about the e-commerce giant being partnered with China’s largest telecom operator in order to sell smartphones that are low-cost, these smartphones are aimed to be sold to the people belonging to and residing in rural areas. The prices shall be as low as $48 which is approximately 299 RMB.

China Telecom is considered to be one of the pioneers in telecommunications industry in the country and has 186 million users. The deal that has been signed with this giant is a part of a two branched strategy for e-commerce giant. The deal visions the small cities of the country as the key to growth plans for Alibaba’s business and also YunOS, which is its operating system.

There is a series of eight smartphone models that have been developed by obscure brands such as Kingsun, Uniscope and Ctyon will consist of YunOS, Alibaba’s operating system that has been built to be competed with Android. The smartphones of this series are going to be inexpensive and will be affordable. Other a little pricier models, which are six in total, will have Taobao pre-installed in the phones. Taobao is a shopping app by Alibaba. These pricier phones shall be coming from better known manufacturers such as TCL, Hisense and Coolpad.

Alibaba news reports that these smartphones shall be sold in the stores belonging to China Telecom. There had been 15,000 retail outlets for the Chinese telecom giant in rural area in 2014 as per the reports. However the company is planning to grow its number of outlets there for further business.

According to the reports by Kantar, the company wishes to position YunOS as a trustworthy alternative to Android which is currently holding a market share of 80.4 percent in the cities of China.

Despite the moves such as that of partnership to make YunOS more powerful with Quixey or the $590 million investment in Meizu which is a smartphone maker and also uses YunOS on some of the handsets, however the OS is yet to become more reliable or popular among the natives. As of October 2014, the operating system had 10 million users only.

The e-commerce giant may have a better opportunity to expand and grow its business by targeting the rural areas. The Alibaba research unit reported that rural e-commerce market in China shall hit $75 million which is approximately $460 billion RMB by the year 2016. In this case, the residents of these rural areas are seen as spending $80 - $300 for the online shopping every year.

Alibaba Group Holdings Opens A New Office

Alibaba Group Holding would soon open a new office to generate and manage wealth, with expectations to achieve objectives.

The Chinese ecommerce company, Alibaba Group Holdings, would soon inaugurate a multibillion-dollar office in the territory of Hong Kong. The Executive Vice Chairman, Joseph Tsai, has played an important role in introducing the idea of expansion. This newly developed business center would be sponsored by the wealth generated from the New York initial public offering (IPO). 

Alibaba news claimed that the management is interested in diversifying wealth. The opening of the new office would not only provide job opportunities to the people of the People’s Republic of China, but also promote the image of the wealthy Chinese executives. Market sources have revealed that a number of new entrepreneurs are making efforts to develop appropriate and suitable strategies for wealth consumption.

Oliver Weisberg and Alexander West would manage the newly founded office. They are not new to the corporate world as Mr. Weisberg has headed the Hong Kong office of Citadel LLC, and Mr. Alexander has founded the Blue Pool Capital Ltd, as reported by Alibaba news today. It is quite evident that the newly appointed managers are experienced and capable of running the office. The new business center is being based on the investment programs of the American endowments, such as grants from Yale University, where Mr. Tsai has studied.

It is most likely that the business center would achieve its objectives as Yale’s investments have succeeded the desired pre-requisites. Alibaba breaking news highlighted that the company’s Executive Chairman, Jack Ma, may also contribute in the investments. This information indicates that the whole management is interested in the new project. Mr. Tsai is not new to the investment sector, as he has worked for the Swedish firm, Investor AB.

Investor AB is well known for holding stakes in a number of large organizations, which include telecommunications giants, such as Ericsson, and the drug manufacturer, AstraZeneca PLC. The corporation’s profile tells that the newly founded office would soon achieve its goals, as its founder has worked with a well-known investment firm.

It is most likely that the shareholders of the Chinese company would welcome the new initiative, as its founder has previously contributed to the financial resources. Mr. Tsai has invested $650,000,000 in the commercial company, which confirms that he would try his best to ensure the success of the project.

Alibaba Group Holding has previously maintained a record of earning huge amount of money. Its history indicates that the office would not only add to the wealth of its executives, but also improve the brand image of the company. It is likely that the office would contribute to the economy of Hong Kong. Now it is yet to be seen that to what extent the newly opened center is able to benefit its founding members.