by Silvia Aloisi
PARIS (Reuters) – Alibaba will make Europe its priority by focusing on the development of its local activities and online platforms outside China, the Chinese group’s president said on Thursday.
“What we’re going to prioritize going forward is local business development. So you’ll see what we call TMall in China become TMall in Europe, which means we’ll serve local brands and local customers on local markets,” said John Michael Evans at the “VivaTech” conference currently taking place in Paris.
“We started with a pilot project in Spain which we will extend to the whole of Europe,” he added.
Alibaba announced a major restructuring in late March that would split its business into six main units, ranging from e-commerce to cloud computing.
The group, which dominates the e-commerce market in China, has come under increased pressure from Chinese authorities in recent years to regulate the technology sector.
Its founder Jack Ma has stepped back since a speech in 2020 in which he criticized the Chinese regulatory system.
Asked about Jack Ma, John Michael Evans said the businessman remains Alibaba’s largest shareholder and still cares about the company.
“Jack is alive, he’s fine, he’s happy. He teaches at a university in Tokyo and is spending more time in China,” said John Michael Evans.
“He’s the biggest shareholder in Alibaba. It’s his business, he cares as much about it now as he did when he started it and I expect that to continue for as long as Alibaba and Jack My will be there”.
(Report Silvia Aloisi; Nathan Vifflin, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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