Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is planning to enter Bangladesh, an official said yesterday.
“We are collecting information about the Bangladeshi market and will
help our group to make a decision,” said Siyuan Pi, managing director of
business development for emerging markets at UCWeb, a unit of Alibaba
Group.
Pi's comment came at the launch of UCWeb's Bangla version browser, ahead of International Mother Language Day on Sunday.
UC browser is the world's second largest mobile browser, with 19.97
percent share of the market. The browser is available in 11 languages,
including English, Russian, Indonesian and Vietnamese.
“We are also offering online commerce for Bangladeshi people through
the aliexpress.com site,” he said, adding that people can buy products
through this site from China as well as other countries.
Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding transacted $390
billion in last year, and is planning to achieve $1 trillion in "sales"
in the next five years.
A UCWeb survey found 37 percent of users from Bangladesh prefer
Bangla as their interface language, said Catherine Huang, marketing
director of emerging markets at UCWeb.
It is currently the leading mobile browser in four emerging markets: China, India, Indonesia and Pakistan.
In Bangladesh, UCWeb's popularity has been increasing rapidly and its
daily active users grew 109.2 percent in 2015, according to Huang. Its
current share in the Bangladesh market is about 30.34 percent, Huang
said.
