Jack Ma pledges all-round cooperation with S Korea

Ma Yun (left), founder and chairman of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, greets South Korean President Park Geun-hye during their meeting in Seoul yesterday. — Xinhua

South Korean President Park Geun-hye yesterday met Ma Yun, founder and chairman of China's leading e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding, agreeing to boost e-commerce cooperation between the two countries.

Ma said they talked for about an hour, mainly on strengthening cooperation on e-commerce, cinema, games and the medical industry. They also discussed how to ease the entry of Alibaba's Cainiao Logistics, China's largest logistic network, into the South Korean market.

Ma said Alibaba will launch all-round cooperation on e-commerce with South Korea, following similar ground-breaking deals with the governments of Britain, France and Italy.

Ma said brands of the four countries will officially enter Alibaba's online platform on November 11. Alibaba will offer them rapid registration, online promotion, platform marketing and other special services.

It was Ma's third trip to Seoul in four months. In July, he was among the 250 business executives who accompanied President Xi Jinping during his official visit to South Korea, the biggest-ever foreign business delegation to that country, according to the Korea Chamber of Commerce.

The Aju Business Daily also reported that Park and Ma have reached a consensus on boosting cooperation on education, product certification services and enhancing the efficiency of e-trading system and logistics.

Park hoped Alibaba could offer more convenience for South Korea's small and medium-sized enterprises to enter China's e-commerce market.

Zhang Jianfeng, Alibaba vice president, revealed that Taobao.com has been chosen as the official website for promotion and ticket services in China for the 2014 Incheon Asian Games.