Growth in Southeast Asia
SingPost, a Singapore mail company, announced on Wednesday that Alibaba would invest in the company and they would also create a joint venture in which Alibaba will focus on e-commerce opportunities in Southeast Asia.
Alibaba will invest 312.5 million Singapore dollars (182.5 million euro) in SingPost and will get 30 million shares in return, which is a 10.35 % stake. Both companies have also signed a first agreement which should lead to a joint venture focused on international e-commerce logistics.
SingPost can use the investment to expand its e-commerce operations, which currently represent 26 % of its total turnover.
Talks with AppNexus
Alibaba is also one of the parties interested in an AppNexus investment, an American company specialized in online ads.
According to sources of The Wall Street Journal, talks are already in an advanced stage, but an agreement has not yet been reached. The investment would give Alibaba more expertise in the advertising branch, while AppNexus could use Alibaba’s funding to expand abroad. The company hopes to get some 100 million dollars (73 million euro) through investors.
While it prepares its American IPO, Alibaba has made a few investments in the United States, like a minority stake in TangoMe worth 215 million dollars (158 million euro) and investments in ShopRunner, an Amazon competitor. It also aims to launch an American version of its marketplace called 11 Main.
1 billion dollars in ads
AppNexus is one of the world’s largest “automated trading” companies in the world of online ads. This system means that ads are bought online, based on a set of predefined parameters, and then sold on digital platforms. In 2013, AppNexus traded for about a billion dollars (734 million euro) in ads.
For each ad sold, AppNexus gets a cut. Last time it managed to draw in investors, among which Microsoft, it received 140 million dollars (103 million euro) in investments.
