Chinese online retailing giant Alibaba Group Holding announced on Tuesday that it will open its first local office in the Australian city of Melbourne later this year, after flagging its intentions to expand outside of China.
Alibaba Global President Michael Evans said Australia is a "huge part" of the company's long-term globalization strategy to raise its 423 million customers to 2 billion by 2036, as it plans to expand its presence internationally.
"Australia and New Zealand are a big part of our globalization strategy. In markets which are very important to us, we want a good group of people working for us," Evans told The Australian Financial Review on Tuesday.
"We want to develop government and regulatory relationships; we want to grow here strongly. It's a key part of what we are doing globally."
