Business
South Korea’s Shinsegae to set up joint venture with Alibaba International
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
By Joyce Lee and Hyunjoo Jin
SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korean retailer Shinsegae plans to set up a joint venture with Alibaba International, Shinsegae affiliate E-Mart said on Thursday.
The joint venture will be formed partly by Shinsegae investing its 100% stake in South Korean e-commerce platform Gmarket, it said in a regulatory filing.
AliExpress Korea and Gmarket will be incorporated into the joint venture, which will be set up in 2025. But the two platforms will continue to be operated independently, Shinsegae said in a separate statement.
In November, Alibaba Group Holding missed analysts’ estimates for quarterly sales as Chinese consumers cut back on spending with the world’s second-largest economy struggling amid a property sector crisis and increased youth job insecurity.
Meanwhile, in South Korea’s e-commerce market which is the world’s fourth-largest according to Euromonitor data, Gmarket has been struggling against local e-commerce giants Coupang and Naver while facing increasing challenges from Chinese rivals like AliExpress and Temu.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee and Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Christian Schmollinger, Shri Navaratnam and Kate Mayberry)
A joint venture is a business arrangement where two or more parties agree to pool their resources for a specific project or business activity, sharing both risks and profits.
E-commerce refers to the buying and selling of goods or services using the internet, including online shopping, electronic payments, and online auctions.
An investment is an asset or item acquired with the goal of generating income or appreciation. Investments can include stocks, bonds, real estate, and other financial instruments.
Blockchain is a decentralized digital ledger technology that records transactions across many computers in a way that the registered transactions cannot be altered retroactively.
A regulatory filing is a formal submission of documents to a regulatory authority, often required for compliance with laws and regulations governing business operations.
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