WSJ reported BABA plans to invest $575m in India e-commerce/payment platform Paytm.
India's rapid growing e-commerce market is an attractive growth area for BABA.
Most important, it highlights BABA's global ambition.
Potential entry into North America via M&A is a distinct possibility.
I reiterate my bullish view on the stock.
India is expected to have over 100m online shoppers by next year with sales reaching $15b, and BABA hopes to connect Indian shoppers with Chinese merchants to capitalize on this trend. BABA also wants to connect Indian merchants to Chinese shoppers, thereby creating a global e-commerce platform that facilitates movements of goods and cross-border payment. I note that under the agreement, Indian customers will have the ability to use their Paytm account to shop on Alibaba, while Chinese users can use their Alipay account to shop on Paytm. As one of the largest e-commerce platforms in India, with 15k merchants selling items from electronics to clothes to accessories and over 25m registered users, of which 20m are mobile-wallet users, Paytm is an ideal platform for BABA to expand its global ambition.
BABA's investment in India is a good start for its global expansion and follows the path of Softbank (OTCPK:SFTBY) and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), both of which have invested in the country. -.....
It is important to note that BABA's global expansion will not only stop in Asia and that a move into the North American market to compete against eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY), AMZN and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is a distinct possibility given the higher spending power of the US consumers and the superior product selection of US-made goods ....
seekingalpha.com/article/...-iii-growth-starts-at-the-doorstep