Jack Ma's Alibaba group wants to play a larger role in the Indian internet market even as it looks for a stronger play in the online market-place and mobile wallets business through Paytm.
The company is now planning investments as well as acquisitions in the mobile content area as well as online-to-offline (O2O) space - something on the lines of BookMyShow -- and this push will also be made through the Alibaba Mobile Business Group.
"India is one of the top economies in the world, and we want to upgrade our investments and our engagements here," Alibaba Mobile Business Group president and UC Web co-founder He Xiaopeng said.
The company is in the process of increasing its interface with content creators and writers through the UC Web browser (We-Media platform) for which it is even looking at paying top bloggers for articles, photos and videos.
"We will not generate content on our own but we will encourage people to post their content on We-Media. With the use of Big Data, artificial intelligence, we will help contributors in improving their content and reaching out to the right target audience."
Xiaopeng said that along with China, India is part of the company's globalisation strategies. The company will look at investments in the "upstream and downstream" areas related to content generation as well as their distribution. Vernacular and those engaged in local language content is also on the company's radar.
Asked about the investments that the company may make, he said there is "no cap" for it. "Our strategy here is for the long-term."
Xiaopeng also had a word of praise for the way Reliance Jio had grown in the market and helped drive up data consumption. "Short videos are the next big thing for the industry. Reliance Jio's focus on driving data provides a big opportunity for the entire industry."
UC Web is a business within the Alibaba Mobile Business Group, and is a leading provider of mobile internet software and services. Its portfolio includes UC Browser (mobile browsing service), UC News (content distributor), 9Apps (Android app store), and UC Union (mobile traffic and monetization platform).