Alibaba Sold Goods Worth 3 Trillion Yuan In 2015 Fiscal Year While China Slows

Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. sold goods worth more than 3 trillion yuan ($463.08 billion) in the fiscal year ending March 2016, the company’s Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai said in a Monday blog post on Alizila, a blog run by Alibaba.

With 10 days left to finish the fiscal year, Alibaba’s announcement represented a growth of about 23 percent in Gross Merchandize Value (GMV) from the previous year.

Tsai said in the statement that the company’s growing GMV reflected China’s shift away from investment and export-led growth toward consumption and services, with Alibaba “at the heart OF this new economy.”

With China projected to grow at its slowest pace in 25 years, Alibaba has focused on widening its network in China’s countryside and bring in more quality non-Chinese goods to sustain growth, according to the blog post.

Alibaba’s “Rural Taobao initiative has thus far penetrated over 12,000 of China’s 600,000 villages,” Tsai said. Alibaba crossed 1 trillion yuan in GMV in 2012.

On Monday, Indian media also reported that Alibaba had approached Tata Sons for a possible partnership as it aims to setup shop in India later this year.

“It will take two quarters for Alibaba to finalize a joint venture partner. It may or may not go with the Tata Group in the end but they are definitely talking,” a person with knowledge of the meeting told India’s Economic Times.

India’s ecommerce market, currently valued at about $16 billion, is projected to grow to $158 billion by 2020, according to a Morgan Stanley report cited by the Economic Times.