Alibaba supports Indian government’s e-commerce stance, sees country as strategic market

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Feb 25, 2019

Alibaba continues to see India as a strategic market for the business and has voiced its support for the Indian government’s planned regulations on the businesses chief marketing officer Chris Tung’s trip to India.

“Whatever is good for India we should comply with, and we respect the data laws in each of the markets that we operate in,” Alibaba’s chief marketing officer, Chris Tung, told the Times of India. “That is why we have a data centre in India and don’t have an Asia hub to serve the market.”

The government has advocated for tighter regulations on the flow of data across its borders. “India should do what is right for the entrepreneurs — it’s the most important thing because they drive innovation, which satisfies the consumer,” said Tung during his first visit to India for the business. “Some companies will put everything with the consumer in the centre, which is not wrong. But we have a balanced view in terms of looking after consumers as well as support entrepreneurs to keep the field of innovation growth going.”

Alibaba has invested around $2 billion (Rs 13,305.5 crore) in startups and has invested in Indian businesses including Paytm and Zomato. Tung called India a “strategic market” for the business. Tung also attended the Global Business Summit over the weekend and voiced his support of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan to make India a $10 trillion economy. Modi’s vision also places importance on technology and startups.

Tung also also spoke about the importance of using media content to promote sales online. The business’ e-commerce platform Taobao is content led and uses videos to merge shopping and entertainment and Tung sees this as the future of Indian e-commerce as well.