Alibaba, Guangfa Bank ink key deal
By Zhang Fengming |
June 18, 2011, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
AT a "critical moment" in its history, the Alibaba Group yesterday took another step in its strategic cooperation with commercial banks over financial and payment services.
Hangzhou-based Alibaba, China's biggest e-commerce company, signed a strategic cooperation agreement with China Guangfa Bank, a lender based in south China's Guangdong Province, to go deeper into e-commerce and e-banking.
"It's a key step for us at a critical moment for the Alibaba Group," Jack Ma, chairman and chief executive officer of the group, said in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province. "I thank Guangfa for coming thousands of miles to Hangzhou for the deal."
Guangfa and Alibaba will launch services in mobile payment, fund management, fast-track payment for Guangfa clients and will cooperate to provide small and medium enterprises with financial services. A co-branded credit card between Guangfa and Taobao, Alibaba's subsidiary, was also launched yesterday.
It has been a busy week for Ma and Alibaba, the company he founded in 1999. On Tuesday, he held an urgent media briefing to show that Alibaba is actively seeking to resolve a dispute with Yahoo! Inc and Softbank Corp, its two biggest shareholders, over Alipay, which it has spun off to gain a third-party payment services license.
On Thursday, Alibaba announced a key move to split its subsidiary Taobao into three divisions to sharpen focus on different market needs.
Guangfa Bank, a medium-sized bank with more than 500 branches nationwide, is the second bank with which Alibaba has teamed up.
In May, Alibaba signed a similar deal with the Bank of Communications, China's fifth-biggest lender. Shanghai-based BoCom is poised to offer online credit through Alibaba's platform to reach numerous small and medium enterprises.
Hangzhou-based Alibaba, China's biggest e-commerce company, signed a strategic cooperation agreement with China Guangfa Bank, a lender based in south China's Guangdong Province, to go deeper into e-commerce and e-banking.
"It's a key step for us at a critical moment for the Alibaba Group," Jack Ma, chairman and chief executive officer of the group, said in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province. "I thank Guangfa for coming thousands of miles to Hangzhou for the deal."
Guangfa and Alibaba will launch services in mobile payment, fund management, fast-track payment for Guangfa clients and will cooperate to provide small and medium enterprises with financial services. A co-branded credit card between Guangfa and Taobao, Alibaba's subsidiary, was also launched yesterday.
It has been a busy week for Ma and Alibaba, the company he founded in 1999. On Tuesday, he held an urgent media briefing to show that Alibaba is actively seeking to resolve a dispute with Yahoo! Inc and Softbank Corp, its two biggest shareholders, over Alipay, which it has spun off to gain a third-party payment services license.
On Thursday, Alibaba announced a key move to split its subsidiary Taobao into three divisions to sharpen focus on different market needs.
Guangfa Bank, a medium-sized bank with more than 500 branches nationwide, is the second bank with which Alibaba has teamed up.
In May, Alibaba signed a similar deal with the Bank of Communications, China's fifth-biggest lender. Shanghai-based BoCom is poised to offer online credit through Alibaba's platform to reach numerous small and medium enterprises.
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