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Alibaba buys Pakistani online retailer Daraz

Alibaba has bought Pakistani e-commerce firm Daraz, as the Chinese tech giant looks to increase its presence in South Asia.

Financial details of the transaction, which was announced on Tuesday, were undisclosed.

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Daraz, founded in 2012, is backed by European tech incubator Rocket Internet. It operates in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Nepal as well as Pakistan.

The deal marks another foray for billionaire entrepreneur Jack Ma’s Alibaba into the South Asian market. The e-commerce titan invested in India’s popular payment app Paytm in 2015.

“Together with Daraz, we can now empower entrepreneurs to better serve consumers in the region through our technology and expertise,” Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang said in a statement Tuesday.

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Daraz will continue to operate under the same brand, Rocket Internet said in a statement.

(Source: CNBC)