Chinese giant Alibaba plans to invest $1.1 billion in South Korea

China's Alibaba Group plans to invest $1.1 billion in South Korea over the next three years, as it seeks to build a logistics centre and expand businesses. As part of the investment plan, the Chinese e-commerce giant plans to spend $200 million this year to build the logistics center, according to a business strategy document of Alibaba, obtained by Yonhap News Agency.

Alibaba also plans to spend $100 million to help small and midsized South Korean firms sell their products overseas, the document showed. AliExpress, an e-commerce platform of Alibaba, has been under scrutiny in South Korea over growing consumer complaints.

Alibaba said it will invest some 100 billion won to help bolster consumer protection in South Korea. Earlier this month, South Korea's antitrust regulator launched an on-site inspection into AliExpress on suspicion of the e-commerce platform's violation of consumer protection duties. The inspection was part of the regulator's investigation into whether the company has fulfilled due responsibilities to protect consumers in accordance with the country's e-commerce law and relevant regulations.

The move came as the number of complaints filed against AliExpress and submitted to the Consumers Union of Korea rose sharply to 465 cases last year from the previous year's 93. The complaints dealt with misdeliveries, issues surrounding order cancellations and the lack of information on deliveries, among other things. The number of AliExpress users in South Korea more than doubled to 7.18 million in February from 3.36 million in 2022, according to government data.