Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group is evaluating options to set up a technology development centre in India. The move is being seen as a global endorsement of India’s software engineering talent, three people familiar with the development were quoted by The Economic Times as saying.
The talks between Alibaba, the Government of India and other likely partners are “at a very early stage”, they said.
Alibaba is currently evaluating options to tap into India’s software engineering prowess and follow in the footsteps of other multi-billion dollar global technology companies like Apple Inc that have also made moves to leverage Indian technology talent in recent years.
“While the talks are still at an early stage, Alibaba is very aware of the fact that India has a growing pool of engineers who have specialised in new-age retail and e-commerce. And that is something the company wants to leverage — similar to how Amazon did,” a person aware of Alibaba’s thinking around this move was quoted by The Economic Times as saying.
The Chinese major’s move comes months after Apple confirmed that it would build a technology development centre outside the US in Hyderabad with an investment of $25 million.
Meanwhile, it has also been reported that Paytm is considering a plan to spin off its online marketplace to allow Alibaba Group to establish a direct presence in the world’s fastest growing e-commerce market.
Paytm is in talks with Alibaba Group for an additional investment of $300-400 million (Rs 1,990-2,655 crore) in its marketplace.
Sources say the technology centre could come up sometime towards the end of 2016 or early 2017
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