Snapdeal Likely to Benefit as Alibaba's Jack Ma Announces More Investment in India

Jack Ma, founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, said he wants to invest more in India given the business-friendly climate in the country under its new Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"India is a great nation. A nation full of potential and hope. We will invest more in India," said Ma, who is on a visit to India.

Addressing the Zhejiang China-India business cooperation conference being organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Ma said he was inspired by the speech of Modi on doing business in India.

Highlighting that Indo-China business cooperation has a lot of potential, Ma noted that Alibaba will work more with Indian suppliers so that they can sell their products in China through Alibaba's platform.

He particularly noted that Indian tea and spices have great demand in China.

India's Economic Times newspaper earlier reported that Ma has met several Indian entrepreneurs for potential investment in the country.

The list of entrepreneurs included Kunal Bahl, founder of Snapdeal, one of the prominent e-tailers in the country. Japan's Softbank, which holds a significant stake in Alibaba, earlier revealed his investment in Snapdeal.

Alibaba recently completed its record $25bn (£15.9bn, €20bn) initial public offering (IPO) in the US, valuing the company at about $280bn.

Following the IPO and the surge in the company's share prices, Ma has become the wealthiest man in China with a fortune of nearly $20bn.

Alibaba's US rival Amazon is already present in India, and is posing stiff competition to local players including Snapdeal and Flipkart. In August, Amazon announced that it is planning to invest $2bn in India to build five new warehouses.