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Alibaba lured by the Middle East ecommerce potential

Monday 1 December 2014 10:44 CET | News

Alibaba Group’s senior vice president Sophie Wu has claimed that there is notable potential for ecommerce in the Middle East, mainly because of the World Expo 2020 in Dubai and the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar.

Wu has also noted that, via Alibaba’s ecommerce platforms, local Arab traders can reach out to the Chinese market and to the world, wantchinatimes.com reports. The Middle East, Wu argued, is one of the top growing regions for Alibaba.com, with 2.7 million active users.

The volume for ecommerce alone is poised to grow from the current USD 2.5 billion per year to USD 10 billion per year by 2018, said Hisham Abdullah Al-Shirawi, vice chairman of the Dubai chamber of commerce and industry, the source cites.

In May 2012, Alibaba set up a partnership with the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and other industry associations in the Gulf state to give member firms access to the online market platform. So far, 12,000 member firms opted for an upgrade to ecommerce, said Al-Shirawi.


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Keywords: Alibaba, Middle East, ecommerce, potential, expansion, China, Dubai, Qatar
Categories: Payments & Commerce
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