BYD Factory in Brazil Faces Investigation as Chinese Workers Found in 'Slavery-like Conditions' 
BYD Contractor Rejects 'Slavery-like Conditions' Accusations in Brazil as Labor Controversy Deepens 
Elon Musk’s xAI Scores $6 Billion with NVIDIA and AMD Driving AI Model and Supercomputer Growth 
South Korea Eyes $13.9 Billion KSMC Project to Outpace TSMC and Reinvent Semiconductor Innovation 
Gold Inches Up as Rising Dollar and Fed’s Rate Policy Pressure Investors 
American Airlines Christmas Eve Flight Delays Resolved After Hour-Long Grounding Caused by Technical Glitch 
S&P 500 Climbs Ahead of Christmas Break with Tech Gains and $10B Equity Inflows 
China Approves New VAT Law Effective 2026 to Boost Key Sectors and Economic Recovery 
Japan Airlines Faces Cyberattack Disruption with Over 60 Delayed Flights and Canceled Domestic Routes 
'Santa Claus' Rally in Doubt as S&P Stumbles and Fed Signals Trouble for Year-End Gains 
Taiwan Blocks Uber's Foodpanda Takeover Amid Fears of Monopoly in $950 Million Deal 
Spanish Stocks Climb as IBEX 35 Sees Gains in Construction, Telecom, and Petrochemical Sectors 
Tesla Rolls Out Mobile Megapack Chargers for Holidays Across the US, Find Out the Locations Here 
Honda and Nissan Push 2026 Merger as Ex-CEO Ghosn Criticizes Bold Move 
Trump Teases TikTok’s Fate in the US as ByteDance Faces a Critical Supreme Court Battle 
Sam Altman Says Superintelligence Will Ignite a 10X Boom in AI Breakthroughs Transforming the Future of Innovation 
Samsung Brings Galaxy Ring 2 and AR Smart Glasses to Galaxy Unpacked 2025 With S25 Series 
In a $4 billion agreement, Alibaba Group and E-Mart are merging their South Korean e-commerce platforms, forming a joint venture to take full ownership of Gmarket. The deal positions the companies to compete with top players like Naver and Coupang in South Korea’s online retail sector.
Alibaba Strengthens South Korean E-Commerce Efforts
In order to fortify its position in the fiercely competitive online retail scene of South Korea, Alibaba Group Holding is planning to combine its operations there with E-Mart's e-commerce platform.
According to an exchange filing by E-Mart, which confirms prior claims by Bloomberg News, AliExpress International and Gmarket would establish a joint venture, with each company having a 50% ownership. The two companies want to pour more money into the partnership, which will eventually buy Gmarket outright.
The new partnership may be worth around $4 billion, according to Bloomberg.
Market valuation for E-Mart reached $1.4 billion as a result of a 5.5% increase in Seoul-based shares following the news. In Hong Kong, Alibaba's stock price increased by 2.6%.
Aiming to Compete with Naver and Coupang
The two companies have joined forces to better compete with major domestic firms like Naver Corp. and Coupang LLC.
With growth slowing in its main Chinese e-commerce market, Alibaba is stepping up its efforts to expand worldwide. The company's cloud segment and overseas operations, such as Lazada and AliExpress, helped to compensate for the poor performance of the domestic e-commerce business in the September quarter.
Alibaba is facing challenges in the e-commerce industry because of the increasing rivalry from new entrants such as ByteDance and PDD Holdings Inc DRC.
Streamlining Operations and Shedding Non-Core Assets
In response, the company's co-founder and current CEO, Eddie Wu, has been focusing on streamlining core operations and investing in areas with the most potential for growth for over a year, Investing.com shares.
In a drive to simplify its company by removing non-core assets, Alibaba agreed last week to sell its Intime department store operation to Youngor Fashion Co. for approximately $1 billion. The initial investment in Intime was 9.3 billion yuan ($1.3 billion), and the e-commerce behemoth anticipates a loss of that amount.
