BEIJING, June 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Babytree, a leading online parenting services platform in China, officially announces a strategic investment from Alibaba valuing in the company at RMB 14 Billion (approximately USD 2.19 Billion). Both sides will carry out extensive co-operation in the areas of e-commerce, C2M services (customer-to-maker), advertising sales, paid expert knowledge, new on-line and off-line retail, and other related maternal & child businesses. Allen H. Wang, Babytree's founder and CEO, emphasizes that all past strategic investors, including Fosun, TAL and others, have done their parts in boosting Babytree's rapid growth in different stages of the company's life. Alibaba will undoubtedly further bolster Babytree's development and help unleash the online parenting community's full commercial potential. By leveraging each other's resources in China's parenting ecosystem, Babytree and Alibaba are poised to achieving greater successes and reshaping the competitive landscape.
Babytree, a long-favored investment target by sector capitals, widely expected to achieve mutual empowerment with Alibaba
Founded in 2007, the 11-year-old online platform targeting young families, Babytree has established a leading position in the trillion-dollar family market. From its inception as an online parenting community, Babytree has evolved to a full-service platform, offering maternal and child-rearing tools, e-commerce, and C2M products and services, as well as healthcare services. As an industry pioneer and the leading player, Babytree has commanded the largest market share in user penetration. According to independent third-party data from sources such as iResearch and Analysys, Babytree's strong growth momentum and its leadership position have consistently attracted investments from both venture capitalists and industrial giants. Prior to receiving its strategic investments from Alibaba, Babytree has already gained investment supports from China's leading strategic players such as Fosun (leading Chinese international investment company) and TAL (leading K12 tutorial service provider).
Strategic investments have always played a pivotal role in refining and reshaping Babytree's corporate strategies. For example, upon completion of Fosun's investment into Babytree, the two companies started collaboration in the area of C2M marketing by developing products and services based on user insights gained from Babytree's vast online community. Leveraging Fosun's healthcare resources, Babytree also launched an online paid expert knowledge service and started generating significant revenues from that venue. Such collaborations, according to Mr. Wang, have boosted Babytree and Fosun's investee-investor relationship into a true strategic partnership. Mr. Guo Guangchang, Chairman of Fosun Group, echoed Mr. Wang's sentiment by emphasizing that Babytree has rapidly developed into China's leading parenting platform through which Fosun leverages in order to realize its corporate mission to make Chinese families happier and healthier. With significant resources from both sides, the Babytree-Alibaba alliance is widely expected to form a community-empowered online commerce giant, serving China's young families.
Ambitious plans ahead for both Alibaba and Babytree
Babytree and Alibaba will launch comprehensive co-operations, establishing a close, long-term strategic partnership to serve the growing family consumption upgrade needs with its online community as a family traffic portal, coupled with big data analytical capabilities. Babytree will develop into China's most significant social marketing platform targeting young families with the aid of the depth and breadth of Alibaba Group's ecosystem resources. The collaboration between the two will usher in significant changes in the young family service industry. "We believe that Babytree and Alibaba's users will greatly benefit from this strategic collaboration, realizing an win-win situation for all," Mr. Wang added.
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