Alibaba buys 50% stake in Chinese soccer team for $192 million
Paul Bischoff Paul Bischoff
12:32 pm on Jun 5, 2014

Tianhe_Stadium
Tianhe Stadium in Guangzhou, China
Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba can now officially count a sports team among its assets. The company paid RMB 1.2 billion (US$192 million) to buy a 50 percent stake in a Guangzhou-based football club, as confirmed by Sina Sports. The other 50 percent is owned by Chinese real estate company Evergrande (HKG:3333). Alibaba founder Jack Ma held a joint press conference in Guangzhou with real estate tycoon Xu Jiayin today to make the announcement.

Many fans were surprised by the move, not just because Alibaba suddenly wants in on China’s sports scene, but because it didn’t buy the local team in Hangzhou, where Alibaba was founded and is based. Ma was reportedly in talks with his hometown club last month, but apparently a deal didn’t surface.

Guangzhou Evergrande won China’s domestic league and the Asian Football Confederation Champions League last year. It was the first Chinese team to win the latter since 1994. The former coach of Italy’s national team Marcello Lippi currently leads the team.

Alibaba buys 50% stake in Chinese soccer team for $192 million

[size=1em]Paul Bischoff
12:32 pm on Jun 5, 2014







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[size=0.85em]Tianhe Stadium in Guangzhou, China

Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba can now officially count a sports team among its assets. The company paid RMB 1.2 billion (US$192 million) to buy a 50 percent stake in a Guangzhou-based football club, as confirmed by Sina Sports. The other 50 percent is owned by Chinese real estate company Evergrande (HKG:3333). Alibaba founder Jack Ma held a joint press conference in Guangzhou with real estate tycoon Xu Jiayin today to make the announcement.

Many fans were surprised by the move, not just because Alibaba suddenly wants in on China’s sports scene, but because it didn’t buy the local team in Hangzhou, where Alibaba was founded and is based. Ma was reportedly in talks with his hometown club last month, but apparently a deal didn’t surface.

Guangzhou Evergrande won China’s domestic league and the Asian Football Confederation Champions League last year. It was the first Chinese team to win the latter since 1994. The former coach of Italy’s national team Marcello Lippi currently leads the team.

Trends Of Internet Finance: China Investment Corp. Xie Ping
by Emma Lee - Aug 14, 2013

The China Internet Conference welcomed more financial tycoons this year as the Internet glamour wowed traditional financial practitioners with the sprawling development of P2P loan business and Alipay’s Yuebao. Triggered by the heat, a raft of banks and insurance companies launched their Internet financial products in recent few months.

Xie Ping, vice manager of China Investment Corporation, concluded the trends of Internet financial industry at the conference.

Third-party Payments

The People’s Bank of China has granted more than 250 third-party payment licenses so far, of which 97 are engaged in Internet payment and more than 150 are in pre-paid card business. Although the overall volume processed by Internet payments companies only amount to 6 trillion yuan or 0.5 percent of the whole payment industry, the number of deals conducted on the Internet represents 40 percent of the total.

P2P Loan

P2P online lending platforms such as Renrendai.com provide more choices, easier access and transparency to clients. With focus on micro-credits, it plugged a hole in China’s banking system that has long neglected needs of small- and medium-sized enterprises’.

Yuebao Model

Alipay’s Yuebao helps sell mutual funds with Internet payments solution, breaking the limits of time of space. Yuebao claims it recorded 2.50 million users and turnover of 5.7 billion yuan within 18 days after its debut.

Monitoring and Risk Control

No regulations in place for Internet financing, an emerging industry, as compared with traditional financing. Authorities are accelerating legislation on this sector.

Internet Currency

Bitcoin and litecoin are gradually establishing their presence in Chinese virtual currency market.