Alibaba Eyes $100B From Budding South-East Asian Commerce

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA showcased ambitious objectives for its Southeast Asian arm Lazada, Bloomberg reports. China’s e-commerce leader looks to drive an overseas expansion to offset Chinese economic and regulatory headwinds.

• Alibaba sees a long-term goal of quintupling gross merchandise value, the sum of transactions across Lazada’s platforms, to $100 billion. 
• Related Content: Read Why China’s Regulators Summoned Alibaba, Baidu
• Alibaba wants Lazada to serve over 300 million users. Lazada is now the third-largest online retailer in emerging markets by GMV, behind MercadoLibre Inc MELI but ahead of South Korea’s Coupang Inc CPNG and India’s Flipkart.
• Alibaba says that Southeast Asian online commerce is growing about 27% annually on average. 
• Southeast Asia’s internet economy is set to double to $363 billion by 2025.
• Price Action: BABA shares traded lower by 1.45% at $118.51 in the premarket session on the last check Friday.