Published by Jessica Weisman-Pitts
Posted on December 26, 2024
1 min readLast updated: January 27, 2026
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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 profits, losses, and control.
E-commerce refers to the buying and selling of goods or services using the internet, allowing businesses to reach customers online and conduct transactions electronically.
AliExpress is an online retail service based in China that is owned by the Alibaba Group, allowing consumers to buy products directly from manufacturers and distributors.
Gmarket is a South Korean e-commerce platform that allows users to buy a wide variety of products online, competing with other local and international e-commerce sites.
Investment is the act of allocating resources, usually money, in order to generate income or profit. It can involve purchasing assets like stocks, bonds, or real estate.
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