See the man in the pic above? No, not Nawaz Sharif! You recognize the person next to him? In case not, he is Jack Ma — the Chinese business magnate who is the symbol of China’s mobile fuelled eCommerce growth. Before becoming a global business cynosure, Jack Ma was a struggling individual who was rejected in more than 30 job interviews. Then how did he go on the become one of the world’s most richest businessmen? All he did was to open an ecommerce store. And that, in China — one among the world’s three most powerful economies which is also densely populated.
Alibaba group set to Enter Pakistan
With Jack Ma (AliBaba) signing today, how does that benefit startups?
What are all the Positive things that you think would happen for the Pakistani Industry if AliBaba comes to Pakistan ? In the MoU, only thing that’s mentioned is helping train small Pakistani business to help them with e-commerce by training them. A prelude to a local version of the portal being launched in a year or two. Alibaba gives small business owners the ability to get their products in front of a global audience. The power of Alibaba is that it can help businesses to get much exposure even with small investment. The small business could literally be transformed overnight if the products find the right market. Alibaba can help people who are unable to do business openly due to many reasons such as Security issues , crime issue , etc. Those people can go straight to Alibaba Pakistan and open a shop for them online and this will help those self-created projects or products to be displayed. It will improve the after sales support and logistics. Warranties and exchanges. Also will help us small manufacturers and sellers jump directly in international retail.
Read: China’s Alibaba Group signs first MoU to enter Pakistani market
Chinese giants are here to support the startup ecosystem?
They will of course benefit the local consumer but their prices can never be possibly matched. All those guys and websites who made a living out of selling cheap Aliexpress thingies for double the prices, they will for sure be shut down. Now the only thing the Pakistani ecommerce can compete with Alibaba is providing branded things that are not necessarily made in China or at least not available from the factory to Chinese markets. Alibaba probably aims to sell more Chinese stuff in Pakistan. Of course the price point will decrease but that doesn’t mean quality. AliExpress doesn’t compromise on quality, you get a refund no questions if you’re not satisfied. This eplatform will only expose Pakistans malfunctioning SMEs to further degradation worldwide. China is not going to baby sit locals nor local industry. Unless the think tank that was setup to work through CPEC wakes up soon to start pushing ‘our safety net’.
It’s seems, Pakistan going to be Chinese colony!!
There are some people who think Alibaba Pakistan will resource local vendors to fulfill orders. Alibaba’s business model is not like Amazon or Daraz because it only works as a facilitator between manufacturers and retailers so if anything it will help local manufacturers specifically small and medium enterprises. Local ecommerce businesses cannot also keep charging unethically high. Alibaba express Pakistan will give local sellers an international exposure which is something grand.
Will Alibaba Pakistan bring their logistic companies too?
What about logistics? Aside from growing the market and increase in number of products available, alibaba com Pakistan will give tough competition to local manufacturers and online stores. If and only AliBaba handles shipping from Pakistan too, a lot of them will get wiped out. It will only destroy local startups or current sites. However, with CPEC in the making, even an Alibaba warehouse will cause a lot of issues. Alibaba is filled with Chinese products and that will take more than 7 days time to deliver to customer and this is where local startups need to speed up, This is where the opportunity holds in your hands. Hope so they would bring a logistics channel too, because current logistics players are unprofessional and also payments mode.
