TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Alibaba Group Holding Co. is eyeing investment opportunities in Indonesian major e-commerce company Tokopedia, according to Strait Times.
A source said that the China-based company is currently negotiating to lead a series of US$500 million funding for Tokopedia. A smooth negotiation would see Alibaba joining SoftBank Group and Sequoia Capital as the existing investors of Tokopedia. Alibaba may challenge JD.com that aim to become an investor as well. Both Alibaba and Tokopedia managements have yet to issue a statement on the report.
For Alibaba, Tokopedia is the right company, after Lazada, to dominate Southeast Asia e-commerce business, particularly in Indonesia. Tokopedia, founded by William Tanuwijaya in 2009, is now the leading e-commerce company and has attracted most of the funding among Indonesian start-ups. Last year, Tokopedia secured US$247 million in funding from Sequoia Capital, SoftBank, Cyber Agent Ventures, East Ventures, SBI Investment, Netprice.com, Beenos and Indonusa Dwitama.
Read: Jokowi Visits Alibaba Group Headquarter
Alibaba management had earlier planned to inject more capital into Lazada totaling US$1 billion. It stated in June that the capital injection would raise its stake to 83 percent in Lazada.
Alibaba investments confirm that Indonesia and Southeast Asia is a potential market for the e-commerce industry. A report from Macquarie Research said that Indonesian e-commerce market will grow from US$8 billion to US$65 billion by 2020.
Co-Founder of Data Driven Asia, Muhammad Imran, said that Amazan will follow Alibaba’s lead with its US$600 million financial power. A research conducted by Google and Temasek released in August 2016 show that Indonesian online business will be valued at US$81 billion by 2025.
FERY FIRMANSYAH
