중국 전자상거래업체의 해외진출 전략에 관한 연구

With the exponential expansion of E-commerce, major e-commerce companies engage in diverse strategies for overseas expansion. This study examines Alibaba’s US market entry process. Alibaba is one of the top 3 e-commerce companies in China. As competition within China became fierce, Alibaba decided to enter the US, a market recognized as the world’s leading e-commerce market. First, to quickly establish its own independent online shopping mall and acquire necessary capabilities, it struck an M&A deal with Bandio and Octiva. In June 2014, Alibaba established its independent online shopping mall ‘11main.’ This was then used as the main platform to compete with well-established American firms such as eBay and Amazon. This was followed by stock investments or strategic alliances with smaller US firms that had sophisticated technological competencies or prior success in the market. Such strategy enhanced Alibaba’s customer base, information, communication and logistics related competencies allowing the firm to support e-commerce activities and effectively access customers. It is difficult to assess the success of Alibaba’s US market entry as of now. However, it is nevertheless meaningful to examine how a highly successful firm in its local market newly enters an entirely different and foreign market.