- Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) leads a $1.1B funding round for Indonesian e-commerce company Tokopedia, according to Nikkei.
- Tokopedia’s mobile app has around 10M downloads and the company will use the new investment to build a research center, hire talent, and improve support for 2M platform merchants.
- The investment marks Alibaba’s first direct investment in Indonesia, though its Ant Financial affiliate has a joint venture with a media company in the area.
- Alibaba also stands as the majority owner of e-commerce company Lazda, which has a foot in the Indonesian market.
- In other news, the Chinese government has warned Alibaba’s Taobao e-commerce site over selling illegal virtual private networks or VPNs.
- VPNs can help users get around the government’s censorship controls. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) removed VPNs from its App Store in the country after a similar warning.
- Previously: Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN)'s Chinese partner warns against bypassing internet filters (Aug. 1)
- Previously: Alibaba beats Q1 estimates, nearly doubles profits; shares up 3.7% (Aug. 17)
- Now read: Alibaba: Maintain Buy Rating, 66% Upside
Original article