Alibaba Launches Special Platform For SMEs In India
China’s Alibaba is the biggest e-retailer in the world and has more online transactions than eBay and Amazon combined. The online giant is now focusing on the Indian market which it says is the second most important market to the company after China.
Alibaba recently announced that it had launched a special online platform for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India which will give them full access to international providers. The new program is called SMILE as it covers Small and Medium Industries Leveraging Export.
India now has over 4.5 million registrations on the Alibaba website and brings in huge amounts of revenue for the e-retailer and amongst all the other countries only China brings in more revenue. The new SME platform will enable users to avail a number of benefits in India and overseas and gain access to certifications and inspection services, domestic and international logistics, financing and technology assistance that will help these providers do business faster and better.
In a statement, Timothy Leung, head of global business development said
India is at a critical point at present and from here we will see sharp upswing in ecommerce. We are very excited in building this consortium for SMEs. There are at similarities in our experience in Chinese and India markets in terms of population size, kind of SMEs and also the core path in the ecommerce. We are also looking at our experience in the past in China and match it with what is happening in India
Alibaba has also decided to collaborate with a number of well known Indian providers in the banking, inspection and logistic sectors to offer assistance to its SMEs. Some of the providers collaborating with Alibaba include Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank, Capital Float, SGS and Mypacco.
Alibaba has been focusing its efforts on expanding and reaching an international clientele after company experienced a slowdown in the Chinese market. The SMILE platform can easily accommodate around 10 million SME users and the company expects its database of 4.5 million users to grow in the coming months as the SMILE platform will make it easier for users to do business across the globe.
The Indian e-commerce market is growing at a rapid pace and Alibaba has also invested in e-commerce companies like Paytm and Snapdeal. Facebook also recently announced that it was launching a special SME Council in India to assist SME’s to use technology to expand their business.
