Alibaba Hosts Sourcing Event in Mumbai

June 19, 2011

Business-to-business e-commerce platform, Alibaba.com, held an offline sourcing event in Mumbai earlier this month. The event was held June 1-2 and reportedly attracted more than 200 Indian suppliers registered on the company’s online sourcing website.

The two-day event consisted of a seminar on the first day featuring panel discussions, networking and Q&A sessions. On day two, one-on-one business matching sessions were organised for a pre-selected group of approximately 20 suppliers from the gifts, stationery, home supplies, auto parts and apparel industries in India. They were matched with buyers from major retailers.

This is a significant development as Alibaba continues to experiment with events in China – and now in India. In cooperation with Alibaba Group subsidiary, Taobao, Alibaba.com will host several events this year in Xiamen, Hangzhou, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

After the event in Mumbai, Brian Wong, vice president of Global Sales and Service, Alibaba.com, said, “The sourcing event in Mumbai this time signifies a shift in Alibaba.com’s approach to developing our marketplace ... the growing sophistication of Indian SMEs and increasing Internet penetration in India, makes it the right time for us to focus more on developing overseas suppliers especially in India to meet buyer needs. We are here to offer quality Indian suppliers a gateway to reaching out to world-class buyers.”

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