Lazada, which Alibaba took over in 2016, is the Chinese corporation’s main e-commerce business in the booming Southeast Asian market. Its importance has grown since Beijing launched a sprawling effort to curb the influence of internet giants, spurring the likes of Alibaba and Tencent Holdings to ramp up their international businesses. The WeChat operator, which is grappling with a gaming clampdown at home, this month launched a global publishing arm to group A-list titles under one umbrella.
Alibaba Group Holding has unveiled ambitious objectives for its Southeast Asian arm Lazada, accelerating an overseas expansion to offset Chinese economic and regulatory headwinds.
The Chinese e-commerce leader is targeting a long-term goal of quintupling gross merchandise value, the sum of transactions across Lazada’s platforms, to US$100 billion, Alibaba outlined in a presentation to investors. It wants Lazada to serve more than 300 million users eventually, according to a slideshow posted on its website.
