Alibaba Hires BCW As Global PR Agency... Continues Global Expansion Drive

Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, has hired the service of BCW to handle its PR duties as it continues its global expansion drive.

BCW won the account following a competitive review that took place last year. The WPP PR firm has begun its remit by supporting Alibaba group's corporate communications team at its HQ in the Chinese city of Hangzhou.

BCW's responsibilities include global campaigns for retail website AliExpress and Alibaba's cloud computing subsidiary, and is expected to expand to include support for more of the company's brands and businesses. The company hosts the largest B2B (Alibaba.com), C2C (Taobao) and B2C (Tmall) marketplaces in the world, along with a range of other interests in ecommerce, search and artificial intelligence.

Alibaba’s approach to building an international business is two-fold: In developed e-commerce markets, the company is working to get international brands to sell to customers in China through Tmall, acting as a “gateway to China,” according to the company. In developing markets, the approach is to build or buy e-commerce marketplaces in developing markets and acquire those customers.