Alibaba Group is growing its business in Australia, including launching a new base there as the company continues to expand its footprint overseas. Group executive chairman Jack Ma presided at an opening ceremony for a new office in Melbourne that will serve as headquarters for Alibaba’s operations in Australia and New Zealand. “With a local office and expert team, Alibaba Group will help Australian and New Zealand businesses share their world-famous products with billions of customers around the world,” Ma said in a statement.
The Melbourne office is led by ANZ managing director Maggie Zhou, a 17-year veteran of the company who most recently served as deputy general manager of cross-border B2C shopping site Tmall Global. Zhou and her team will support the 1,300 Australian and 400 New Zealand businesses selling on Tmall and Tmall Global, while also working to bring new merchants onto the platforms. “A physical Alibaba headquarters is a key step in ensuring Australian businesses have the support and information they need to succeed in China and the rest of the world,” Zhou said in a statement.
Alibaba emphasized that it wanted to deliver more than just eCommerce services to Australian businesses and consumers. The goal is to “to build the entire operating infrastructure needed to enable local businesses to expand globally,” Zhou said, including cloud computing, online payments and logistics.
Last year, Alibaba Cloud—Alibaba Group’s cloud-computing arm—opened a data centre in Sydney, and more than 1,000 bricks-and-mortar stores across Australia and New Zealand accept Alipay, the e-wallet app owned by Alibaba affiliated company Ant Financial. Further expansion in these areas, as well as travel and digital entertainment, are planned for Australia and New Zealand, Zhou said. Alibaba’s international B2B website has been operating in Australia since 1999.
The Melbourne announcement was part of a larger tour of Victoria and New South Wales by Ma over two days in March. On Friday, he met with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in Sydney to discuss his proposal for an e-World Trade Platform, which Ma wants to establish to give small and medium enterprises greater access to the global economy via the internet.
In a separate development, Alibaba stepped up its partnership with Australia Post, signing a memorandum of understanding that will bring the state-run logistics company to Southeast Asia’s e-commerce market through Alibaba-owned Lazada Group. Pilot online stores are planned for Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia for later this year. The MOU also states that Australia Post will work with Alibaba’s logistics arm, Cainiao Network, to improve data integration and develop a co-branded, cross-border delivery service for Australian outbound parcels destined for China.In a statement, Australia Post Chairman John Stanhope said, “Our enduring relationship with Alibaba will allow local Australian businesses to access the biggest online marketplace in the world.”
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