Paytm Mall, the e-commerce entity of online payments platform Paytm, has added Alibaba heavyweights Joseph Tsai and Michael Evans on its board of directors along with Zhang Yong.
The development was revealed through the company’s documents filing with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) and Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).
As of the designations of the new members in the Alibaba group, Joseph Tsai is the executive vice-chairman of the Alibaba Group, while Michael Evans and Zhang Yong are the president and CEO of the Alibaba Group, respectively.
These three new members of the company will be replacing Alibaba Group’s Jason Pak Tung Yip, Timothy A Steinert and Mei Ki Cindy Chow Lok, who were appointed on Paytm Mall’s board earlier this year.
Commenting about the company’s business model, Amit Sinha, COO of Paytm Mall said,
There are two broad business models for ecommerce: One is to become the technology partner of every retailer and second is to be a large retailer yourself. Our approach supports the first business model. We believe working with a million retailers is a much bigger purpose than creating one single, large online retailer.
Paytm Mall is said to be following the strategy of its largest investor Alibaba, which has seen a tremendous success with its strategy in its home market.
With the company having already announced its plans to spend money on on-boarding new merchants on the platform, it has revamped its mobile application.
It now features more than 1,000 brand stores, which customers can browse and place an order, which will then be delivered by their nearest brand-authorised local retailer.
Paytm Mall claims to be having 15,000 brand-authorised retailers selling over 65 million products on its platform. The company, targeting a gross merchandise value (GMV) of $4 billion by the end of the year, is competing against the likes of Amazon and Flipkart in India.