Alibaba Eyes Micromax For Investment And Entry Into India
Asia’s largest e-commerce name Alibaba is keen on entering the Indian market. With all the buzz around the online space, a new pro-investment Prime Minister and the booming Mobile phone market in India, Alibaba has found a secret route to enter.
Sources claim that Chinese search and e-comm giant Alibaba will invest heavily in Micromax, acquiring upto 20 % stake in the Indian bred company. A deal that would cost the company over $ 1.2 Billion, would allow the chinese giant easy access into the market which is tough to get into for new companies.
Alibaba has also been in the news recently for investing in brands like Ouya, Meizu and Snapchat. Micromax is one of the largest mobile phone manufacturer in the domestic market. With its constant damage to Samsung’s position in India, and the new brand “YU” taking on the likes of Xiaomi and OnePlus in the local markets, Micromax makes for a good investment option.
Micromax’s new brand YU is apparently set to launch a new product in India on the 12th of May to provide a more premium outlook, taking on flagship killers. The company was also recently in the news for the sad breakup of OnePlus and Cyanogen .
The investment, however, focuses on Micromax devices and their wide spread reach. Alibaba plans to deploy services like Alipay, the company’s new payment platform. Ant Financial Services Group, which owns Alipay, is China’s largest payment service provider and is controlled by Alibaba’s executive chairman and founder Jack Ma.
