Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., China’s largest e-commerce giant by market share, said on Thursday it will pay $2 billion to acquire cross-border e-commerce platform Kaola from NetEase Inc.
The announcement, which comes after Caixin reported a potential deal last month, marks the latest consolidation in China’s ultra-competitive online shopping market. NetEase Kaola, the biggest import retail e-commerce platform in China, is an archrival of Alibaba’s Tmall Global.