Alibaba Group eyeing ownership of Weibo

Alibaba Group, the leading e-commerce company in China is planning to buy a stake in Weibo, a micro-blogging platform owned by Sina Corp, Reuters reported two days ago. The official newspaper said that the investment negotiations between Alibaba and Sina have entered the final phase but Alibaba declined to comment on the report.

Some sources quoted Alibaba has valued Weibo at US$3 billion (RM9.18 billion) and also said Alibaba plans to buy a 15-20 per cent stake in Weibo. The sources also highlighted that Alibaba’s investment in Weibo will help drive web traffic to its marketplace – Taobao, the most popular consumer-to-consumer online shopping platform in China, while providing incremental advertising revenue to Weibo.

by Terry Brown