E-commerce giant Alibaba on Thursday announced its plan to invest 1.2 billion yuan (190 million U.S. dollars) in financial media outlet China Business Network.
By investing in China Business Network, the financial arm of the Shanghai Media Group (SMG), Alibaba will venture into the field of information services, said a joint announcement by Alibaba and SMG.
Running popular online shopping sites Tmall and Taobao, as well as China's largest e-payment provider Alipay, Alibaba presides over a huge reservoir of data spanning e-commerce, finance, logistics, health and culture.
It is the commercial use of this data that the media company will explore, sources from the two companies told Xinhua.
Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma said the proper use of the data, including clients' privacy and data security, would be their top concerns.
