South Korean retailer Shinsegae Group plans to set up a joint venture with Alibaba International, Shinsegae affiliate E-Mart said.
The joint venture will be formed partly by Shinsegae investing its 100% stake in South Korean e-commerce platform Gmarket, it said in a regulatory filing.
AliExpress Korea and Gmarket will be incorporated into the joint venture, which will be set up in 2025. But the two platforms will continue to be operated independently, Shinsegae said in a separate statement.
E-commerce
In November, Alibaba Group announced plans to integrate its domestic Chinese and international e-commerce platforms into a single business unit run by one leader for the first time.
The Alibaba E-commerce Business Group, as the unit will be called, brings together the Taobao and Tmall Group and the Alibaba International Digital Commerce (AIDC) Group.
AIDC groups cross-border player AliExpress, wholesale B2B site Alibaba.com and other regional platforms operating in different parts of the world, from Southeast Asia to Türkiye.
Its chief, Jiang Fan, a former head of Tmall, has been tapped to lead the new unit, reporting to Alibaba Group chief executive Eddie Wu.
Quarterly Report
The company missed analysts' estimates for quarterly sales, as lingering economic uncertainty sapped consumer spending in China and weighed on the e-commerce giant's domestic business.
Chinese consumers have sharply cut back on spending, especially on discretionary items, as the world's second largest economy struggles to pick up pace amid a property sector crisis and heightened youth job insecurity.
That has knocked retail sales, which remain pressured even as major vendors like Alibaba and JD.com dole out promotions and discounts. JD.com also missed estimates for quarterly revenue.
