Alibaba to bet big on small merchants for Singles Day with RMB 2 billion subsidies
Alibaba to bet big on small merchants for Singles Day with RMB 2 billion subsidies Credit: Alibaba

In an SEC filing, Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba revealed that a dozen of its entities are partly owned by the country’s state-owned enterprises or foreign sovereign wealth funds, showing extensive Chinese government ties in Alibaba’s vast and complicated business empire. The Hangzhou-based company also mentioned that one of its six entities in direct sales businesses has Chinese government ownership of no more than 30%, while the remaining five were below 10%, and those branches account for less than 6% of Alibaba’s total revenue for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2023. The Taobao owner’s sports-related business, in which the government has a 25% stake, generated only 0.05% of the company’s revenue, while two logistics entities in which the government records a 73.5% ownership did not contribute to revenue during the period. [Alibaba filings]