Alibaba Group’s automobile business unit today established collaborative
relationships with BMW MINI and Jaguar Land Rover aimed at enhancing
customers’ online car buying experience, while building a complete
automobile value chain for China’s car industry.
Alibaba Group’s car business unit, Alibaba Automotive division, was
launched earlier this month to incorporate the Company’s car-related
businesses such as big data marketing, Tmall’s car vertical, Taobao’s
second-hand car market and vehicle financing into an integrated car
ecosystem and platform.
Under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between MINI and
Alibaba Group, Alibaba Group’s Tmall.com platform will become the main
e-commerce platform for MINI online car sales in China. MINI will
conduct pre-sale launches of new cars and roll out special edition
models in China through its flagship Tmall store. MINI and Alibaba
Automotive will collaborate in developing and testing customized
online-to-offline services and work together on branding and online
marketing initiatives.
In a separate MoU signed with Jaguar Land Rover, Alibaba Automotive and
Jaguar Land Rover agreed to collaborate on big data research and
e-commerce initiatives aimed at providing efficient and convenient
customer service.
Sean Green, head of MINI’s China business, Maurits Aalberse, Vice
President of Jaguar Land Rover China and WANG Licheng, general manager
of the Alibaba Automotive division participated in the signing
ceremonies that were conducted on the sidelines of the Shanghai Auto
Show.
“Alibaba Automotive is committed to creating a platform and ecosystem
for car brands and consumers to actively participate in, in order to
improve operational efficiency in the industry and to provide users
enriching online car-buying experience. By working with valuable
partners like MINI and Jaguar Land Rover, Alibaba is able to strengthen
our O2O presence thus helping raise the bar on customer service in the
industry,” said WANG Licheng, general manager of Alibaba Automotive
division.
Last week, Alibaba Automotive and Shanghai General Motors agreed to
expand cooperation in China’s automotive industry in the areas of car
finance, big data marketing, after sales service and O2O.
Alibaba Automotive has partnerships with nearly 50 car brands, 10,000
car dealerships in China and serves 60 million car owners through the
Tmall car vertical (car.tmall.com). In 2014, 120,000 cars were sold
through Tmall.com.
About Alibaba Group
Alibaba Group’s mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere. The
company is the largest online and mobile commerce company in the world
in terms of gross merchandise volume. Founded in 1999, the company
provides the fundamental technology infrastructure and marketing reach
to help businesses leverage the power of the Internet to establish an
online presence and conduct commerce with hundreds of millions of
consumers and other businesses.
Alibaba Group’s major businesses include:
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Taobao Marketplace (www.taobao.com),
China’s largest online shopping destination
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Tmall.com (www.tmall.com),
China’s largest third-party platform for brands and retailers
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Juhuasuan (www.juhuasuan.com),
China’s most popular online group buying marketplace
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Alitrip (www.alitrip.com),
a leading online travel booking platform
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AliExpress (www.aliexpress.com),
a global online marketplace for consumers to buy directly from China
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Alibaba.com (www.alibaba.com),
China’s largest global online wholesale platform for small businesses
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1688.com (www.1688.com),
a leading online wholesale marketplace in China
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Alibaba Cloud Computing (www.aliyun.com),
a provider of cloud computing services to businesses and entrepreneurs
Copyright Business Wire 2015