Alibaba rolls out Tmall World for overseas Chinese citizens in SG, HK & MY

Alibaba Group has launched Tmall World, a new sales channel, to allow the 100 million Chinese citizens residing overseas, to purchase items from its retail site Tmall. The new service will roll out in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Taiwan.According to Reuters, Alibaba will provide end-to-end solutions including logistics, payment and localisation support catering to the needs of each local market. Tmall World users are required to have an active Chinese payment method to purchase their items.In the announcement made on Monday, the company said it plans to expand Tmall World's network to other countries in the future. This comes after Ant Financial, Alibaba's payment affiliate, decided to conduct expansion plans in the Asia Pacific region through investments and joint ventures.A+M has reached out to Alibaba for more details about the launch and its expansion plans.Southeast Asia has been on Alibaba's radar in recent years. In 2016, the company invested US$1billion in Southeast Asian retailer Lazada Group and launched a service that enables local consumers to buy a selection of Tmall goods.Alibaba has also secured deals in Indonesia, India, Hong Kong, Thailand and South Korea, with its most recent announcement being the establishment of two new data centres in Jakarta and Mumbai. The e-commerce company has also rebranded Lazada Group's payment arm Hello Pay under Ant Financial's own Alipay brand.