Ali Investment In The US Version Of Vip.Com Or Cooperation Against Amazon

It is understood that Ali invested in the US version of vip.com Zulily, while Zulily is an American maternal and child products group buying website, selling clothes and other products in flash buying mode, with headquarters in Seattle.

In May 10th,

(hereinafter referred to as ALI) spent $56 million to buy 4 million 800 thousand class A shares in the US Zulily category.

So far, the number of ZulilyA shares held by Ali has increased to 11 million 500 thousand shares, accounting for 9.3%.

Some analysts believe that the pace of Ali's entry into the US market is accelerating.

According to the documents submitted to the securities and Futures Commission, Ali's investment company spent about $56 million to buy 4 million 800 thousand shares of A-shares of Zulily, making the number of ZulilyA shares held by Ali increased to 11 million 500 thousand shares, valued at about 156 million US dollars, which is close to 1/6 of Zulily class A shares.

Before that, Ali held less than 5% of Zulily shares, and the investment has never been disclosed by the media.

However, the voting power of class A shares is only 1/10 of class B shares.

At present, Zulily's B class stock is mostly in the hands of the founder of the company.

Public information shows that

It is an American maternal and child products group buying website, which sells clothes and other products in flash buying mode. Its headquarters is in Seattle.

Zulily, which has been established for 5 years, was listed in the US in November 2013 and the issue price is $22.

The company surged to over $70 at the beginning of 2014, stimulated by reports of sales growth and increased volume of customers.

Last year, Zulily's sales exceeded 1 billion dollars.

However, at present, Zulily is in a difficult period, and its share price has fallen since its peak of 72.75 dollars in February 2014. Now it has shrunk by about 82%.

On Friday, Zulily's shares rose 12.67% to $13.30 a share.

As of Friday, the market value of Zulily was about $1 billion 640 million.

Zulily's chief executive, Darrell Cavens, said in a statement that he welcomed Ali to become a shareholder of the company.

Ali Jennifer Kuperman, vice president of international affairs, said in an email that Ali will continue to pay attention to the investment of leading and forward-looking entrepreneurs in product development.

After investing in Zulily, Ali and Seattle have closer ties.

Prior to this, Ali and many cities have reached cooperation to sell their products in China.

In addition, Alibaba has established a cooperative relationship with online diamond retailer Blue Nile.

Recently, Alibaba also set up software engineering office in Seattle.

Prior to that, Ali has launched an independent e-commerce service 11Main in the United States.

There are also reports that Ali has invested.

Competitor Jet.com, however, has not yet been confirmed.

Some analysts believe that Alibaba and Zulily can win a win-win situation. On the one hand, it helps Alibaba speed up its entry into the US market, and on the other hand, it helps Zulily enter the Asian market.

At the same time, the two companies can cooperate against Amazon's competition.

For Ali, finding an e-commerce partner in Amazon's "backyard" may be a strategic move. It may even pave the way for closer cooperation between Zulily and Alibaba in the future. Maybe Alibaba will wholly-owned Zulily in the future.

However, some insiders pointed out that the voting rights of class A shares are only 1/10 of class B shares as a result of the dual ownership structure of Zulily.

Unless the management agrees, it is difficult for other companies to acquire Zulily.