Alibaba.com acquires majority of Visable shares, shaking up B2B trade in Germany

Alibaba.com, the world’s leading B2B online marketplace, recently acquired the majority of Visable’s shares, a specialist in B2B e-commerce in Europe. This move already has far-reaching implications for B2B trade in Germany and is likely to have a lasting impact on the industry.

With a revenue of 68 million euros and nearly 3 million registered B2B buyers, Visable is an important player in the European B2B market. In addition to Visable, Amazon Business, Mercateo, Ankorstore, and Faire are also significant actors in this field. With the acquisition of Visable, Alibaba.com has now taken on a medium-sized European competitor, which is causing a stir.

Why did Alibaba.com choose Visable? Among all market participants, Visable has the longest tradition. The company has been known as „wer-liefert-was“ for many decades and has made a name for itself both as a printed procurement directory and as an online version. In 2019, the company was renamed Visable, and CEO Peter Schmid formulated the goal of becoming the leading European player in the online B2B sector and being the better Alibaba in Europe.

However, Visable still has a long way to go to achieve these ambitious goals. In 2022, the company only experienced a revenue growth of 3 percent, while competitors such as Mercateo were able to grow significantly stronger despite difficult circumstances. Visable has also not made any significant progress in terms of technology. Direct transactions through the company’s platforms have not been possible so far, which makes the portals more like industry directories than marketplaces.

Visable hopes that Alibaba.com’s involvement will lead to increased technical development. The company needs a strategic partner who can contribute its expertise, product portfolio, and global reach to drive its successful growth strategy. Thanks to the partnership with Alibaba.com, Visable can accelerate the internationalization and improvement of its platforms and support European SMEs in digitizing their marketing and sales channels. The focus is particularly on expanding into Poland, Italy, Spain, and Turkey.

The planned launch of a trading platform on Visable is scheduled for 2025. Without the acquisition, according to CEO Peter Schmid, the company would have needed two to three more years to launch the marketplace.

The successful acquisition of Visable shows how far European competition authorities are willing to act. This is likely to also have an impact on Alibaba.com’s future expansion plans. It remains to be seen how this deal will affect B2B trade in Germany, but the industry agrees that the implications will be far-reaching.

Schlagwörter: Alibabacom + Visable + B2BHandel

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