Smartphones help boost e-commerce

People look at the new handset during a mobile phone trade fair on June 27, 2014. [Provided to China Daily]

Plans by Alibaba to boost its presence are a sign of vast opportunity

Looking for trustworthy suppliers of agricultural produce in India can be a tough job for Fan Chengliang, a Chinese businessman who exports Indian spices to China.

Fan, 40, launched his business in March last year in suburban Hyderabad, a city in southern India with a population of more than 6 million. During the harvest season, he had to travel hundreds of kilometers every day to purchase peppers from the local dealers.

"For newcomers like me, it's difficult to appraise whether a supplier is credible or not," Fan says. "It always takes a long period to establish trustworthy relationships with local businessmen."

However, finding reliable suppliers using online business-to-business services is expected to become easier for businessmen like Fan, after Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, China's largest e-commerce company, recently announced plans to boost its investment in India.

On Nov 25, Jack Ma, the founder and chairman of Alibaba, said while visiting India that the nation with the world's second-largest population offered huge potential for e-commerce.

"We will invest more in India, and we will work with Indian entrepreneurs and technology companies," 50-year-old Ma said at the India-China (Zhejiang) Business Cooperation Conference.

Alibaba currently has a small presence in the Indian e-commerce market. Ma, whose company is responsible for 80 percent of online retail sales in China, made the announcement two months after Alibaba's record initial public offering in New York raised $25 billion.

"In the next three years, one of the key strategies for Alibaba is to globalize, to ensure that more small businesses around the world use our services," he said.

According to Ma, Indian businesses have already become the second-largest presence on Alibaba after Chinese companies, and roughly 400,000 Chinese customers buy goods including spices, chocolates and tea from Indian sellers through the online platform.