（photos from Suning China）
Suning Commerce Group, the largest retailer in China, aims to further grow its global retail prowess by attracting Silicon Valley talents into its newly-opened research and development laboratory in Palo Alto, California.
The new R&D facility will serve as Suning’s high-tech hub for developing e-commerce services, including the data searching and gathering of shoppers’ habits. The services will be targeting Chinese consumers for now as Suning still does not sell to US consumers and remains closed to US-based retailers.
However, Suning Vice Chairman Weimin Sun said the company will certainly expand its consumer and retailer base to include the US in the next four to five years.
The new R&D Center in Palo Alto is Suning’s first entry into California and the third facility focusing on research and development. The other two R&D Centers are in Beijing and Shanghai.
In a statement posted on its website, Suning said it aims to hire at least 200 local engineers and developers at its Palo Alto facility by 2017. The center currently employs 15 people.
Suning’s entry into California was welcomed by industry leaders and California public officials, who have been traveling to China to encourage Chinese companies to invest in the state’s Bay Area. Among those who attended the opening of Suning’s facility were California Governor Jerry Brown, San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee, and Oakland Mayor Jean Quan.
The company earlier announced that it will invest up to USD 420 million in video website PPTV as it shifts its business focus to online sales. Suning will take a 44% stake in PPTV through a partnership with Hony Capital.
The investment is seen by experts as a wise move by Suning considering that PPTV now holds 6.4% of China’s online video market by revenue. The investment, they said, is a key move to accelerate the company’s online transformation.