Daraz, earlier known as Kaymu has been operating in Nepal since 2012 and is one of the most popular E-Commerce stores in our country. Just today, Alibaba, the largest E-Commerce platform which runs Alibaba.com and Aliexpress.com has acquired Daraz. What does it mean in the current E-Commerce context of Nepal? Let's find out.
Rocket Internet, the parent company of Kaymu and Daraz merged the two companies under a new name, the Daraz Group. Today, Alibaba bought Daraz Group in an undisclosed deal. The Chinese giant has bought the entire Daraz business. This is not the first time we are seeing acquisition move from Alibaba. Back in 2014, the company had bought Lazada, Southeast Asia's e-commerce platform, for $1 Billion.
"Together with Daraz, we can now empower entrepreneurs to better serve consumers in the region through our technology and expertise," Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang said in a statement Tuesday.
There were rumours of this acquisition taking place in the past couple of months, with Bloomberg reporting that acquisition talks were ongoing.
With this acquisition in play, don't expect something extraordinary happening overnight. Also, as it stands right now, the Daraz group will operate as it is and will be headed by the same set of executives. And if you were expecting something crazy like the company stocking products from Aliexpress or Alibaba, you would be wrong again.
For now, the Daraz group being under the Alibaba's umbrella literally means nothing, especially to the end-consumers. But down the road, as e-commerce gains traction in Nepal, we can expect big things to happen. It's only when international companies recognize and realise the market of Nepal, they start investing big.
Anyways, it's good to see that Daraz is now a part of the world's largest E-Commerce platform and we are definitely excited about the news. We will make sure to update you with any further news about this purchase and it impacts when we hear anything new.
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