Alibaba Offering Houses To Its Employees On Discounted Price

Alibaba is building houses to accommodate its employees at a discounted rate and it's logistics affiliate Cainao has completed a financing round

The Chinese e-commerce company is establishing apartments to sell to its workers at a 40% discount, according to reports.

There are total 380 apartments with-in the range from 87 to 118 sq. meters constructed in Hangzhou, China. As per reports by People’s Daily, the completion of the construction will be done by 2018.

Eligible workers will draw a lot from the opportunity to purchase the houses. In order to become eligible, they should have worked at the company for around three years and be serving in M3 (senior manager) jobs or lower.

These apartments will be offered at a price of $1548 per sq. meter (10,000 yuan) whereas the rest of the properties in the region are available at a price ranging from $2632.17 to $3096.67. Alibaba isn’t the only China based company to provide housing to its employees. Apartments are offered by Evergande Group to its newly hired staff free of charge.

Free apartments are also offered by Hengda Group to its workers and after a particular number of years if they plan to buy the house the company also provide them a discount. Affordable housing is also guaranteed by Chinese telecom and equipment service provider Huawei to its employees located near Shenzhen headquarters and factory.

In other news, as per reports of Reuters a financing round has been completed by Alibaba’s logistics division today.

In this, a number of investors have participated which includes the China based investment company Primavera, Malaysian strategic investment company Khazanah Nasional Berhad, Singaporean state owned investment company Temasek Holdings and strategic investment corporation GIC Pte Ltd.

The Hanzgzhou based organization didn’t reveal many details regarding the amount of money raised by Cainiao, whether the company had to issue equity stock or the valuation of its logistics unit.

That’s the first financing round of Cainiao since it was established by Alibaba 3 years ago, the online retail company stated. Then, Alibaba as well as a group of China based logistics service providers stated they would pay $15.4 billion (100 billion yuan) over 5 to 8 years to establish a nationwide logistics network.

The company seeks a leading role in the developing fragmented package delivery sector of China, as online trading industry extends beyond urban centers and needs a more strong  logistics infrastructure. In collaboration with delivery service providers, reams of data are crunched by Cainao on anything from delivery routes, weather patterns and order trends to improve efficiency.

The organization stated it and investors would work together to further establish out its "big data logistics network". The country’s leading e-commerce organization has been battling stiff rivalry from its smaller competitor J.D com, which prioritizes the control over a huge logistics network, such as Amazon with its loss-making business model.

Alibaba Focuses On More Indian e-Retailers As Snapdeal Buyout Fails

Alibaba is planning to invest more in India due to it being one of largest online retailers in the world.

Latest Alibaba news reports e-Commerce giant based in China has lost the Snapdeal buyout recently in India. The company aims to try out more in the region. It is looking for acquiring the Indian online retailors which have a mass customer attraction and loyalty as well as network consisting of robust merchants.

Any company that wishes to expand its horizon and experiment with more products and services and also has a positive customer care service is being looked by the e-commerce giant. An Alibaba representative said that "Alibaba Group's investment strategy focuses on three aspects of our business: increasing user acquisition and engagement, improving customer experience and expanding our products and services.”

The company has four offices in India and is looking to acquire some major e-commerce names in the country. The platform has provided a global market for medium and small enterprises. The company has also provided platform for selling goods, from chocolates to spices to tea.  Alibaba news reports that the representative expressed that the company’s investment approach also includes promoting the startups and young entrepreneurs that are working on innovative or problem solving products.

The founder of Alibaba, Jack Ma, when visited India in November 2014 had expressed the interest in investing more in India.  He said that he wishes to work with Indian entrepreneurs and Indian technologists so the relationship between the two nations builds up in a better way.

Ma is one of the richest people in China and also the most successful one as well. With the fortune of approx. $24 billion, the company stands out being established only in 1999.

One of the market insider said that the key strategy that Alibaba is following is to go global so that it can cooperate and enhance business with small enterprises across the world. It is in talks with many small e-commerce companies to create a large model based on e-commerce plan so that it can take on rivals like Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal.

India, being a populous country and also consisting of high rate of internet usage is one of the huge online retail market across the globe and is welcoming major investors around the world to invest in it. According to PwC, a consultancy firm, the sector based on e-commerce is going to increase by 34% in this year as compared to the last year.  

In January, a memo of understanding was signed by the e-commerce giant with CII which is an industry body. Last month, the company had pulled out of talks due to increased estimates with Snapdeal.