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Japan’s SoftBank is reportedly in talks with Chinese Alibaba Group, discussing ways how to expand e-commerce between the two countries. According to The Wall Street Journal, the idea is that Alibaba’s e-commerce unit, Taobao, would work with 41% SoftBank-owned Yahoo Japan Corp. to help small and medium-sized merchants to sell goods through each other’s platforms. As a result, potential customer base would be widened for users of both Alibaba and Taobao.
SoftBank owns a 33% stake in Alibaba Group and its chief executive Masayoshi Son sits on Alibaba Group’s board of directors. And although Yahoo owns 34% of Yahoo Japan and 39% of Alibaba Group, the Internet giant is not included in the talks, according to WSJ.
SoftBank’s recent investments include RockYou, an application developer for social-networking sites; and Ustream, which is a provider of live video streaming to the Internet and mobile devices.
The way I see it, something’s gotta happen from this deal. Softbank is not a private equity company, hence when they’ve invested in Alibaba, they probably/certainly knew what they’ll do with it when the timing is right. So the question is – is now the right time to integrate Alibaba in Softbank’s offering? What do you think?
[Via: MobileBusinessBriefing]
About The Author
Dusan Belic
Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.
