By Tang Guhan
China's maternal website for would-be and young mothers, the Babytree, announced it would forge a partnership with the e-commerce giant Alibaba on Tuesday.
After a new round of fundraising, the company was valued at around 14 billion yuan.
The two sides will cooperate in areas of e-commerce, Customer to Maker (C2M), advertisements, and New Retail among others.
Babytree had gained investments from Fosun International Limited and Tomorrow Advancing Life (NYSE: TAL) ahead of Alibaba.
It had joined hands with Fosun in customized C2M services and launched its online knowledge payment systems added with healthcare services leveraging by Fosun's healthcare resources. Also, the business has achieved a reasonable income as of now.
Moreover, Tomorrow Advancing Life has supported Babytree in its education and e-commerce businesses.
Founded in 2007, the company has expanded its business from the maternal community website to the C2M and healthcare service platforms.
Wang Hainan, the CEO and founder of Babytree, noted the cooperation would help provide more professional, safe, and convenient services for their customers.
Besides, Alibaba will provide a whole package of solutions for Babytree, including operational, technological, logistical, and human resources support, among others.
"The cooperation will create a win-win situation. Investors of Babytree will benefit from the move," Wang added.
The maternal and baby products and services market in China was predicted to see a rapid 15 percent compounded annual growth rate in 2018 with a market value exceeding 3 trillion yuan, according to research from Roland Berger, an international consulting firm.
In detail, the maternal and baby products will reach 1.42 trillion yuan, among which baby food and clothing market will exceed 900 billion yuan. The maternal and baby services market is estimated to be worth 1.27 trillion yuan with a nearly 20 percent compound annual growth rate during 2015 to 2020.
