🛒 Alibaba’s New Investment
Alibaba has invested another $230M into its Southeast Asia-focused ecommerce platform, Lazada. This brings Alibaba's total investment in Lazada to $7.7B since it took a controlling stake in 2016 by investing $1B.
📉 2024’s First Injection
This $230M is Alibaba’s first injection into Lazada this year. Last year, Alibaba invested $1.8B into Lazada. The new funding comes as ecommerce players in Southeast Asia seek to lower costs and outdo their competition.
🛍️ Lazada’s Competitive Edge
Lazada launched its Choice offering last year, competing with Temu and Shein in low-cost offerings. Alibaba reported that the Choice platform helped its global marketplace, AliExpress, achieve over 60% order growth in late 2023 and continued growth in early 2024.
✉️ Strategic Adjustments
Earlier this year, Jack Ma told Alibaba’s staff about taking a "surgical approach" to improve the company. This included simplifying its business structure and boosting efficiency by increasing synergies between its logistics arm, Cainiao, and its ecommerce business.
Will Alibaba's investment help Lazada outpace its rivals?
