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| Ma (second from left) at the opening ceremony for the Alibaba Group's ANZ headquarters. |
Alibaba Group founder and Executive Chairman Jack Ma has officially opened the company’s Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) headquarters in Melbourne, Australia.
“With a local office and expert team, Alibaba Group will help Australian and New Zealand businesses share their world-famous products with billions of customers around the world. Whether a large company with existing links to China or a mum-and-dad run exporter operating out of a garage, Alibaba Group is here to make it easy to do business anywhere,” Ma said.
“Australia will always have a special place in my heart and that’s why I am so pleased to come back to contribute to supporting Australian businesses to create opportunities and jobs in a country that has meant so much for me.”
The Melbourne office is led by ANZ MD Maggie Zhou, a 17-year veteran of the company who most recently served as Deputy GM of cross-border B2C shopping site Tmall Global. Zhou and her team will support the 1,300 Australian and 400 New Zealand businesses selling on Tmall and Tmall Global, while also working to bring new merchants onto the platforms.
“A physical Alibaba headquarters is a key step in ensuring Australian businesses have the support and information they need to succeed in China and the rest of the world,” Zhou said.
Alibaba says that it wants to deliver more than just e-commerce services to Australian businesses and consumers. The goal is to “to build the entire operating infrastructure needed to enable local businesses to expand globally,” Zhou said, including cloud computing, online payments and logistics.
Last year, Alibaba Cloud—Alibaba Group’s cloud-computing arm—opened a data centre in Sydney. More than 1,000 bricks-and-mortar stores across Australia and New Zealand accept Alipay, the e-wallet app owned by Alibaba affiliated company Ant Financial. Further expansion in these areas, as well as travel and digital entertainment, are planned for Australia and New Zealand, Zhou said. Alibaba’s international B2B website has been operating in Australia since 1999.
The Melbourne announcement was part of a larger tour of Victoria and New South Wales by Ma. Ma also met with Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in Sydney to discuss his proposal for an e-World Trade Platform, which Ma wants to establish to give small and medium enterprises (SMEs) greater access to the global economy via the Internet.
Alibaba separately announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Australia Post that will bring the state-run logistics company to Southeast Asia’s e-commerce market through Alibaba-owned Lazada Group. Pilot online stores are planned for Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia for later this year. The MOU also states that Australia Post will work with Alibaba’s logistics arm, Cainiao Network, to improve data integration and develop a co-branded, cross-border delivery service for Australian outbound parcels destined for China.
Australia Post Chairman John Stanhope said, “Our enduring relationship with Alibaba will allow local Australian businesses to access the biggest online marketplace in the world.”
The two companies first partnered in 2014 when Australia Post set up a storefront on Tmall Global that connected Australian SMEs with Chinese consumers. Australia Post then provided the logistics necessary to get the orders to China.
Interested?
Read the TechTrade Asia blog post about the Jack Ma Foundation's first philanthropic contribution in Australia
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