It is learned on January 9 from Pinwan, on January 8, according to the Turkish “Morning News”, Alibaba Group President Michael Evans said during his visit to the Turkuvaz Media Group that Alibaba plans to invest more than 1 billion US dollars in Turkey, including plans to build a logistics hub at Istanbul Airport and build Turkey’s largest data center covering an area of 200,000 square meters near the Turkish capital Ankara.

“We thought about investing in Europe and the Middle East, but we needed a very strong production base. While doing research, I saw that this place has a lot of capacity. I believe in Turkey. ” Evans mentioned Trendyol, a Turkish e-commerce platform owned by Alibaba Investment Holding, “We chose Trendyol because its technology has already been developed and has great potential. ” He explained that out of Trendyol’s 300,000 sellers, 97% are Small and Medium Enterprises.

On the issue of whether Trendyol will go public, Evans said that “going public has advantages and disadvantages”. He believes that becoming a listed company is beneficial, but Trendyol management should make a decision on this. Çağlayan Çetin, President of Trendyol Group, said that there are no plans in the short term.

Alibaba acquired Trendyol in 2018. In April 2021, Alibaba increased its investment in Trendyol by US$350 million, increasing its shareholding ratio to 86.5%.