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China's biggest e-commerce company, Alibaba Group, broke into the Pakistani market on Tuesday by fully acquiring the Daraz Group.
"With the acquisition, Daraz will be able to leverage Alibaba’s leadership and experience in technology, online commerce, mobile payment and logistics to drive further growth in the five South Asian markets that have a combined population of over 460 million, 60% of which are under the age of 35," said a press release issued by Daraz.
Founded in Pakistan in 2012, Daraz has since expanded in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Nepal. It will continue to operate under the same brand, said the press release.
Hailing the move, Daraz Co-CEOs Bjarke Mikkelsen and Jonathan Doerr said that there is still a long way to go on the e-commerce journey. "We have still only scratched the surface of the potential," they said.
Daniel Zhang, CEO of Alibaba Group, said: "Together with Daraz, we can now empower entrepreneurs to better serve consumers in the region through our technology and expertise. In Daraz, we found a great team that espouses our values and believes that a technology-enabled commerce ecosystem will play a critical role in driving the long term economic development in South Asia."
The Alibaba group has been for some time trying to enter the Pakistani market. Last year, it signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Commerce and had been in talks with Daraz since at least earlier this year.
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Comments (50) Closed
May 08, 2018 01:09pm
Alibaba is good and Daraz is equally bad.. lets see the outcome.
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May 08, 2018 01:12pm
Good news , Pakistani will experience more innovation in e-market.
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May 08, 2018 01:32pm
good
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May 08, 2018 01:43pm
My country is getting sold off to China. I love you China but don't buy all of my Pakistan :( We sold our 50% of stock market to you isn't that enough. Though I must say I much rather be an autonomous region of China rather than being under people like Ishaq Dar and Nawaz glad both are gone now.
SinoPak Iron Brothers 4 Life!
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May 08, 2018 01:46pm
Great, good and big FDI flowing in.
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May 08, 2018 01:51pm
Will the consumer also benefit from the "much extensive" catalog of Alibaba? If not, I doubt we Pakistanis will see benefit or loss from this merger.
Though looking at prices, Alibaba will still be more expensive than someone asking a relative to bring something from overseas.
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May 08, 2018 02:01pm
Hope you get succeed.
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May 08, 2018 02:12pm
The consumer confidence in online POS has attracted giants like Alibaba to venture into Pakistani online market, otherwise government economic policies has been devastating for businesses! (A general opinion).
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May 08, 2018 02:16pm
bye bye to local traders!
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May 08, 2018 02:16pm
That's great news. In the absence of Amazon and ebay in Pakistan, there was no major online shopping option to access global products. Now we can enjoy the wide range of product offerings by Alibaba group, just like the rest of the world.
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May 08, 2018 02:21pm
This will bring in a lot of opportunities and threats combined.
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May 08, 2018 02:36pm
Very good for the growth of overall IT industry in Pakistan.
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May 08, 2018 02:57pm
A win-win for both.
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May 08, 2018 02:59pm
@Zak ...and how would the FDI flow in? It’s unfortunate that we are selling each and everything to China - without entering into a partnership for mutual interest. Chinese are not just limited to ports and shipping, they now have license to catch all our fish as well. They will grab electricity control along with all major economic/industrial facilities and Pakistanis will be working under them on payroll.
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May 08, 2018 03:33pm
I have lived in China for about 4 years and there’s nothing you can’t buy online and it can’t reach your door step without moving an inch. Another great opportunity will be the jobs created in postal services for dispatching millions of packages. It’s indeed a news I have been waiting for years to why Pakistan didn’t take advantage of the ‘friendship’ for elevating living standards and creating thousands of jobs.
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May 08, 2018 03:50pm
Sold for how much?
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May 08, 2018 03:50pm
Another nail in Pakistan’s coffin
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May 08, 2018 03:58pm
Alibaba is not an 'Tech' company, but rather an E-commerce company selling goods and services online. It has not created too many technologies of its own like Amazon or Google to be called a 'Tech' Company.
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May 08, 2018 04:07pm
China is proving to be the East India company of 21 century, it will slowly take over all sectors, while some people will advocate for innovation and choice, the reality is the ownership of businesses is going to China which is very worrying.
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May 08, 2018 04:27pm
This Daraz is bunch of thieves. They deliver things which were even not ordered instead they delivered things of poor quality and costly than the market price.
People please beware ....
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May 08, 2018 04:34pm
Not good for the local Pakistani Market, the Chinese are slowly taking over everything in Pakistan, things should be planned very carefully when dealing with China.
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May 08, 2018 04:35pm
Daraz should enter the Asia-Pacific market after this acquisition.
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May 08, 2018 04:53pm
@Imtiaz Ali Khan how does acquiring equity in a private company equate to compromising autonomy? By this logic Tata shouldn`t have acquired Jaguar
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May 08, 2018 04:59pm
@Imtiaz Ali Khan when the situation is that no other country is willing to invest in your country because of political uncertainty, law and order and worst economic condition. China is the only country is investing despite knowing all the facts only way to revive our stagnant economy.
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May 08, 2018 05:09pm
Come on in. We are ready to share success with you.
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May 08, 2018 06:03pm
From now on all profits will go out of Pakistan. How is this good?
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May 08, 2018 06:42pm
The PML-N government failed to tap the enormous budding talent in country with sensible reforms / policy for the IT industry. China to the rescue, Chinese tech giant Alibaba entering Pakistani market is great news, bringing great leadership and experience. This will help put Pakistan on the world tech map and bring enormous benefit for the country.
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May 08, 2018 07:39pm
Dont worry people Daraz is not a Pakistani company it could be acquired by anyone, anytime.
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May 08, 2018 07:56pm
Good news. Let the expansion begin.
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May 08, 2018 08:15pm
Daraz was formed on the model of Amazon USA and was a sucessful E. Retailer. It had great potential for Pakistani communities in foreign countries and at home. Daraz was reluctsnt to sell and the negotiations dragged on since 2012. Alibaba China drove a hard bargain. Alibaba must have given an offer which Daraz could not refuse.
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May 08, 2018 08:42pm
Pakistan need high end tech institution .
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May 08, 2018 09:09pm
Major implication of this tie,
1. Small vendor may face so many problems to run their business and ultimately there is no other option rather
than shutting down the business to them. What is the other Legal source of income for them?
2. Giving authority to Chines company means Pakistan's quality product have to sell all Pakistani citizen under
the brand of Alibaba. Does it really make any seance here?
3. For this Alibaba definitely take the commission. For this the original cost of all good definitely going to
increase on an average of minimum 10%.
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May 08, 2018 09:35pm
Alibaba! welcome to Pakistan.
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May 08, 2018 09:55pm
@karman Its acquisition ! You should clear your concept of difference between investment and acquisition.
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May 08, 2018 10:40pm
Not a bad thing. Good to get newer thing. Apply taxes as per rules and no free lunch.
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May 08, 2018 10:46pm
great work and i hope best consequence
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May 08, 2018 10:47pm
i hope will have good result appear in futree
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May 08, 2018 10:56pm
@Pro Pakistani
I think it is the other way around. It is to sell cheap Chinese goods to Pakistanis.
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May 09, 2018 12:14am
now China started acquiring Pakistani companies and it will end up acquiring whole of Pakistani business houses.
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May 09, 2018 12:19am
@Viking Star good analysis.
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May 09, 2018 12:23am
What about the local innovation companies - aren't we creating competition for them in our own country... can we open any business in China ??
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May 09, 2018 12:57am
@The UK Alibaba will sell Chinese products and not local Pakistani manufactured. Spread of Alibaba is sure death to our manufacturing. Then what is left..
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May 09, 2018 01:22am
A monopoly in the making?
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May 09, 2018 01:58am
Extremely good news... we are creating profitable companies and attracting foreign bidders. This is excellent as we are getting FDI and moving forward. China-Pakistan friendship for ever!
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May 09, 2018 03:10pm
@Farhan - This is not true friend. Just check other countries where Alibaba is operational with local market kings and see which stuff they used to sell most. Local or Chinese. You come to know the reality.
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May 09, 2018 11:19pm
Bad day for new indegeneous player, good for consumer. Today here Walmart bought share of Bangalore based Flipkart worth 16 billion dollar at 20 billion dollar. FDI is good but still one's own is always great.
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May 10, 2018 12:38am
Welcome to the "green-shirts" club. Keep it up and hang on tough.
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May 10, 2018 08:54am
Don't worry, Alibaba invested heavily in India's payTM (Paytm is valued at $10 billion) also. That did not change much. As long as your government is careful there is nothing to worry.
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May 10, 2018 11:19am
Full acquisition is not good.It should be 50:50
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May 10, 2018 10:24pm
@KingOfNorth - Alibaba does not have majority stake in paytm
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