Alibaba.com-SOFTBANK Joint Venture Launches Alibaba Korea Localized Alibaba B2B Marketplace to Facilitate Global Trade With Koreas Small and Medium Sized Enterprises.Business Editors SEOUL, Korea & HONG KONG Hong Kong (hŏng kŏng), Mandarin Xianggang, special administrative region of China, formerly a British crown colony (2005 est. pop. 6,899,000), land area 422 sq mi (1,092 sq km), adjacent to Guangdong prov. , China--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 20, 2000 Alibaba.com Corporation today announced the launch of Alibaba Korea (kr.alibaba.com), a Korean language Korean language Official language of North Korea and South Korea, spoken by more than 75 million people, including substantial communities of ethnic Koreans living elsewhere. B2B (Business to Business) Refers to one business communicating with or selling to another. See B2B e-commerce, B2C and B2G. B2B - business to business marketplace designed to facilitate global trade between Koreas small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and Alibaba.coms members in over 190 countries. Alibaba Korea offers a suite of Korean language and bilingual services designed by a local team to meet the needs of Korean SMEs, including thousands of trade leads from buyers and sellers worldwide translated into Korean. Alibaba Korea also offers a Korean-language directory and user interface, combined with news and data covering several industries. "As one of the worlds leading trading nations and one of Chinas closest trading partners, Korea is a natural market for Alibaba.com to launch its first localized version outside of Greater China," said Jack Ma, CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Alibaba.com. "To help us serve the Korean market, we are pleased to have SOFTBANK Korea as a partner, as it is a well-respected and leading Internet player in Korea." "Establishing a strong local Korean presence is a key step in Alibabas globalization globalization Process by which the experience of everyday life, marked by the diffusion of commodities and ideas, is becoming standardized around the world. Factors that have contributed to globalization include increasingly sophisticated communications and transportation strategy," said Joe Tsai, COO of Alibaba.com. "Korea is already a strong contributor to our global membership base and a country where Internet adoption is setting the pace for the rest of Asia." "Alibaba Korea is poised to become the leading B2B site for trade serving the Korean business community," said Ju Won (JW) Son, President of Alibaba.com Korea Corporation. "The Internet is changing the way Korean companies, big and small, conduct global trade. Alibaba.com is well positioned to lead this trend in Korea and we will actively seek to partner with Korean companies that offer trade-related services to further enhance our localized content and services." Strong Market Opportunity According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the World Trade Organization, Korean exports totaled over US$144 billion and Korean imports totaled US$119 billion in 1999. Greater China, Japan and the US top the list of Koreas major trading partners, complementing Alibabas strength in these core markets. Korea is also one of the fastest growing Internet markets in Asia. According to a May 2000 Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., or simply Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) is one of the world's largest global investment banks. Goldman Sachs was founded in 1869, and is headquartered in the Lower Manhattan area of New York City at 85 Broad Street. report, Korea had over 7 million Internet users at the end of 1999 and a user base estimated to grow to over 20 million users by 2004. About Alibaba.com Korea Corporation Alibaba.com Korea Corporation is a joint venture between Alibaba.com Corporation and Softbank Korea Co. Ltd, a subsidiary of SOFTBANK Corporation. In the initial phase of the project, the joint venture employs a staff of 15 local managers and customer service representatives, led by Mr. Ju Won (JW) Son, an expert in global trade and a 13-year veteran of Ssanyong Corporation. About Alibaba.com Alibaba.com is the world's leading online business-to-business marketplace and community for global trade. The company is focused on facilitating trade among small and medium sized enterprises through its web-based information and e-commerce platform. Alibaba.com's web properties have a combined membership of over 200,000 members. Alibaba.com is headquartered in Hong Kong with operations in Mainland China and branch offices in Seoul, Silicon Valley and London. Alibaba.com's institutional investors include SOFTBANK, Goldman Sachs, Transpac Capital, Fidelity Capital, Venture TDF (language) TDF - An intermediate language, a close relative of ANDF. A TDF program is an ASCII stream describing an abstract syntax tree. TDF became part of TenDRA in abut 2001. Pte Ltd PTE LTD Private Limited of Singapore and Investor AB of Sweden. Alibaba.coms Board of Advisors includes Peter Sutherland, founding Director-General of the World Trade Organization The Director-General of the World Trade Organization is responsible for supervising the administrative functions of the WTO. Because World Trade Organizations' decisions are made by member states (through either a Ministerial Conference or through the General Council), the and Masayoshi Son, President and CEO of SOFTBANK Corp. About SOFTBANK Korea Originally established in 1991 as a software distribution company, SOFTBANK Korea ("SBK SBK Superbike (racing motorbikes) SBK Snowboard Kids (gaming) SBK Svenska Brukshundklubben SBK Stichting Bouwkwaliteit (Dutch) SBK South Brooklyn Railway Company ") has transformed itself to a premier Internet investment firm early this year. In addition to its leading market position in software distribution business, SBK is poised to be a leading Internet investment firm in Korea. To this end, SBK will actively invest in and operate local companies with high potential to become effective members of the global SOFTBANK family and seek joint venture opportunities in Korea with SOFTBANK's portfolio companies from overseas. Currently, SBK has six companies under its portfolio, which include Yahoo! Korea, SOFTBANK Media, and SOFTBANK nPlatform. |
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