Alibaba (BABA) Eyes Russia as Next International Opportunity

As Alibaba Group Holding (NYSE: BABA) looks to expand its international presence, the next market it might enter could be Russia.

Reports last weekend had Alibaba founder Jack Ma saying the company was exploring options for the Russian online trading market. Speaking to China's Xinhua, Ma said, Although we have only one employee working in Russia, Aliexpress managed to become the No. 1 most-visited e-commerce website in the country.

Notably, Alibaba recently opened a representative office in Russia.

While Russia could prove a fruitful market for Alibaba, other Chinese e-commerce companies -- such as Osell -- have also moved to build a presence in the country. Osell VP Su Mingpu recently said, Experience activities will be held at least twice a month under different themes to set up a bridge between buyers and sellers of consumer goods and industrial products. In China's emerging export destinations like Russia, Brazil, India and Dubai, establishing a display platform or a local partnership is helpful for a Chinese enterprise to explore the local market.

Ma was in Russia last week at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. The executive spoke with Russian officials and commented, We discussed the future development of e-commerce with the Communications Ministry and the Economic Development Ministry. We talked about the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as the whole Russian market. We also had discussions with the Russian Post on how to make the quickest cross-border delivery from China to Russia.

Shares of Alibaba are modestly positive Monday afternoon.

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