Alibaba buys stake in leading Chinese classifieds site Koubei.com

[mandy]

Press release:

Alibaba.com, China's leading e-commerce company and the world's largest online B2B marketplace for global trade, announced today that it has entered into an agreement for a strategic investment in Koubei.com, one of China's largest classified listing and community websites. With the investment in Koubei, terms of which were not disclosed, Alibaba has gained a significant exposure in one of China's fastest-growing e-commerce segments.

Koubei.com, which means "word of mouth" in Chinese, was founded in Hangzhou in June 2004. In little over two years, it has become one of China's most popular classified listing and community websites. It offers local classifieds and discussion forums for people to find and share information on apartment rentals, restaurants, entertainment, employment, goods and services, and just about anything else. Koubei.com has sites tailored to multiple cities in China.

"Community-based classified listings are an essential part of e- commerce," said Tian Jian, Vice-President of Alibaba's investment and acquisition group, a newly formed effort to leverage the company's industry know-how and financial resources towards developing promising young companies that bring strategic synergies with Alibaba's core businesses. "Besides buying and selling products online, people want a marketplace to trade services and share information about service providers. With our investment in Koubei, we're partnering with the team that pioneered the online classified marketplace in China and opening up another channel to grow our existing e- commerce community of more than 40 million consumers and businesses in China."

The deal makes Alibaba the only Internet company in China with a leading position in the key growth sectors of business-to-business e-commerce, consumer e-commerce, online payments, communications and search, and now community-based online classifieds.

About Koubei.com

Koubei.com was founded in Hangzhou in June 2004 and is one of China's largest online classified listing companies. It offers local classifieds and discussion forums for multiple cities in China allowing people to find and share information on apartment rentals, restaurants, entertainment, employment, goods and services, and just about anything else. Koubei.com has over two million registered users.

About Alibaba.com Corporation

Alibaba.com is a global e-commerce leader and the largest e-commerce company in China. The company operates several e-commerce platforms that connect individuals and businesses from China, and around the world. Alibaba.com makes doing business easy, enabling an interactive community of millions to meet, chat, search for products and trade online.

The company's five businesses include: Alibaba International (alibaba.com), the world's largest online B2B marketplace for global trade; Alibaba China (alibaba.com.cn), the largest online small- and medium-sized enterprise community in China; Taobao (taobao.com), Asia's largest consumer e- commerce website; AliPay, China's leading online payment service; and Yahoo! China (yahoo.com.cn), a leading search engine and portal, acquired from Yahoo! Inc. in October 2005.

Alibaba: www.alibaba.com