The Times of India reports that Jack Ma, founder of E-commerce giant Alibaba, met Monday with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the possibility of a larger Indian presence for his firm. The Indian newspaper reports:
Alibaba founder Jack Ma is back in the capital after a gap of four months and has backed business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce as the model best suited for India and China, while pointing out that B2C, being pushed by the likes of Amazon and Flipkart, was the American model.
Ma — a schoolteacher who became China’s richest man after listing Alibaba last year — met Prime Minister Narendra Modion Monday and indicated to the possibility of a larger India presence, sources said. The 50-year-old, who had come to India as part of a business delegation in late November, had told TOI that he planned to invest in the country. He later bought a 25% stake in Paytm, a mobile commerce firm.
The search for a larger footprint in the country comes at a time when the e-commerce story is booming, despite concerns in some quarters about “unrealistic valuations”. In November, Ma had said that India is the second largest sourcing ground for Alibaba after China, where the economy has slowed down in recent months. In November, during private conversations, he had acknowledged that Alibaba had been slow in recognizing India’s potential.
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