Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE: BABA) witnessed a significant jump of 1.52% in pre-market trading on Thursday as the company announced its plans to expand its local business in Europe. The president of the e-commerce giant, J. Michael Evans, emphasized the company’s commitment to building local businesses and online platforms outside of China during a technology conference in Paris.
“What we will focus more for the future is to build local businesses, so you will see something called TMall which we have in China become TMall in Europe, which means we will serve local brands and local customers in local markets,” stated Evans.
He further revealed that the company had initiated a pilot project in Spain, which is set to be expanded across Europe.
In March, Alibaba made headlines when it announced a split into six units and expressed its intention to explore fundraising and listings for most of them. This strategic move came after a two-year regulatory crackdown on China’s tech sector.
The restructuring will involve splitting Alibaba’s e-commerce business, with one side focusing on domestic-facing e-commerce marketplaces and the other on overseas marketplaces like Lazada, which caters to Southeast Asia, and AliExpress.
