David Cameron Signs Alibaba Trade Agreement

Prime Minister David Cameron and Alibaba founder Jack Ma have presided over a trade agreement to promote the sale of British goods on Alibaba's site Tmall.

During a 15 minute closed-door meeting on Tuesday, Ma and Cameron discussed ways to raise the profile of British brands on the group's sites and strategies to increase bilateral trade and investment in the UK.

Jack Ma And David Cameron Discuss 
Opportunities For UK Firms With Alibaba

According to a post on Alibaba's blog, the meeting also included Alibaba chief executive Jonathan Lu, chief operating officer Daniel Zhang and British Ambassador to China Sebastian Wood.

The meeting, part of Cameron's three day trip to China, concluded with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Alibaba and UK Trade & Investment to promote the sale of British goods on Tmall.com. The site lets retailers and brands open shops selling directly to Chinese consumers.

Alibaba opened a London officer in 2009 and one of its sites, linking manufacturers to buyers, has more than 2 million UK members, the Alibaba blog says.

The occasion was marked by Ma taking a 'selfie' of the two men which has so far had 982 retweets (although responses from Twitter were at least as entertaining than the picture itself) .

Alibaba's Jack Ma And British Prime Minister
David Cameron Indulge In A 'Selfie'

Alibaba is preparing for a possible IPO and is talking to the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. It is also considering a secondary listing in London, sources told the Financial Times newspaper back in October.

Yahoo owns 24 per cent of the business and its agreement stipulates that a listing must take place in Hong Kong or on a US exchange. But that does not rule out secondary listings in other markets.

Alibaba also owns Taobao and recently invested in several US companies including Amazon rival ShopRunner Inc and search engine Quixey.