Reports are spreading up that Alibaba Group Holding Limited and Facebook Inc. are teaming up to play pivotal role together in one of the fastest growing economies, India. Growing smarphone user base in India one of the factor that Alibaba & Facebook will tie knot in India.
This information hasn't garnered much traction in the market but these are calculated moves from the two giants.
Around 80% of the online orders in China were shipped by Alibaba and many believes that China market has come to saturation point for Alibaba and that is why company is eyeing India as its next "go to" market, as India has very similar demographics as China.
Moreover, Alibaba is looking to invest around $550 million in One97 Communications. One97 owns Paytm, an online payment platform with more than 20 million registered users, a platform that Alipay would look to grow with. Alipay is China's leading third-party online payment solution owned by Alibaba.
On the other hand, Facebook not only has a large user base in India but also multiple offices which it is looking at expanding. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s maiden trip to India in October, 2014 hints that Facebook is looking tap Indian market and drive more user growth as Zuckerberg spoke of reaching out to the rural areas of the country to improve connectivity through technology, in other words, drive upward a 100 million user-base that Facebook currently has through India, second to USA.
India has over a billion population however only 292 million managed to surf internet constituting about 19% of its population. With such a huge consumer base waiting to be tapped, signs are ominous that the tie-up between the two is only the start to a much more penetrative growth plan.
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