Alibaba.com passed her torch to her India counterpart as part of its global expansion plan. The international B2B marketplace struck a deal with  Informedia India Limited yesterday to form a multi-year partnership after 6-month on-and-off discussion.

The partnership will bring mutual benefit to both parties.Alibaba.com is expected to take 600,000 offline memberleads online and turn them to be paid members. While Informedia India Limited  can take advantage of Alibaba’s strong online capability to build up online presence in India.

Alibaba.com made her first move by setting up an India channel  late last year. The Open Sesame event in India was hosted on 14 December with 300,000 registered users. In her press release issued yesterday, Alibaba.com now has 400,000 members in India.

India has more than 8 million SMEs, which account for almost 40 per cent of India’s industrial output and employ around 30 million people. It is estimated that 3 million SMEs are engaged in B2B trade and around 1 million are in the export business. 

For full story, visit  Alibaba.com and Infomedia Form Strategic Partnership in India