Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, will reportedly join the board of directors at UCWeb, a Chinese provider of mobile Internet software technology and Web browser services.
Yu Yongfu, chief executive officer of UCWeb, said during an interview quoted in local media that Alibaba's third-party Internet payment subsidiary Alipay.com and UCWeb's browser product have already been integrated.
After Ma takes the director role in UCWeb, the company will become a firm part of the Alibaba camp. By the end of the second quarter of 2013, UCWeb reportedly had about 300 million quarterly active users, which is huge potential power to promote the growth of mobile traffic of Alibaba services.
Yu revealed that Alibaba Group made a strategic investment in UCWeb in 2009 and it invested additional capital in another round of UCWeb financing. Yu said the group now holds a large number of shares in UCWeb; however, the detailed number was not disclosed.
During the interview, Yu revealed that UCWeb will continue to prepare for its IPO in America, and it will continue to seek cooperation opportunities in the Chinese Internet industry.