Alibaba to keep investing in Philippines
Jack Ma, Alibaba Group Founder executive chairman, on his visit, outlined his long-term plan to get e-commerce to take in the Philippines.
While e-commerce is deemed by most people as the “future of retail”, it has been slow to take off in the Philippines. According to Ma, the number one rule is to keep investing in the Philippines.
Just last year, the Alibaba Group spent $1 billion to gain a controlling stake in Southeast Asia’s e-commerce platform, Lazada.
The first part of Alibaba’s plan is to set up the infrastructure and build up internet marketplaces locally through Lazada. The second part includes establishing a sophisticated mobile payment system. The last and final is to solve the country’s logistics problems.
“We also have Lazada’s logistics system here. It’s not good at the moment but if we continue to invest in the system for another 3 to 5 years we’ll be ready,” said Ma.
Ma also raised the idea of having training centers to help train entrepreneurs. “We’ll build up the infrastructure here and let people get used to e-commerce. We don’t expect to be successful next year; we’re thinking in terms of 5 to 8 years,” he added.
