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SINA stocks surge with Alibaba investment
April 30, 2013, 6:32 am

[Getty Images]

Alibaba is a leading Chinese e-commerce platform [Getty Images]

The stock price of China’s SINA Corporation opened 19 per cent higher on Monday as it announced that Alibaba Group has invested $586 million to purchase an 18 per cent stake in Weibo Corporation, SINA’s wholly owned subsidiary, before the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

SINA is a leading online media and Nasdaq listed company, and Weibo is one of its subsidiaries which operates a Twitter-like social media website in China.

SINA has also enabled Alibaba – a leading Chinese e-commerce platform – to increase its stake in Weibo to 30 per cent within a stipulated period of time.

SINA’s affiliate entities also entered into strategic alliance with the Alibaba Group, including Taobao (China) Software Co., Ltd. and Zhejiang Tmall.com Technology Co., Ltd., to jointly explore social commerce and develop marketing solutions for cross platform activities.

The two companies will cooperate in the areas of user account connectivity, data exchange, online payment and online marketing, and explore new business models for social commerce based on the interactions of users on Weibo and on Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms.

SINA said the strategic alliance is expected to generate approximately $380 million in advertising and social commerce services revenues in aggregate for Weibo over the next three years.

Xinhua