Alibaba’s spending spree continues! The Chinese ecommerce behemoth has just given American chat startup Snapchat a US$200 million cash infusion, a source familiar with the deal told Tech in Asia. This latest investment values the American company at around US$15 billion. Neither company has officially announced the investment yet.
This is just the latest in a long line of mega-investments from the Chinese company. Earlier this month, Alibaba earmarked US$315 million to invest in Taiwanese startups. In February, it sank nearly US$600 million into Chinese smartphone startup Meizu and took a big stake in Indian payments service Paytm. Those are just a few of Alibaba’s other big investments so far this year, and in 2014 the company went on a spending spree that saw it invest big in everything from Chinese film companies to American ridesharing startups.
This actually isn’t Alibaba’s first big investment into an American chat app either. The company put US$280 million into American messaging app Tango last year. It remains unclear what Alibaba hopes to gain from its investments in these US-based startups, or whether it hopes to integrate their technologies into any of its own products. But American investments are in line with Alibaba’s broader strategy of expanding its global reach and attracting more overseas customers this year in its quest to become the world’s most dominant ecommerce player.
Alibaba isn’t the first company in China’s tech scene to show an interest in Snapchat, though. Tencent actually invested in the American startup back in 2013 during a US$60 million round of fundraising, although it’s not clear how much of that sum the Chinese company contributed.
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