Most people will probably have heard of Amazon and eBay, but not the
world's largest e-commerce company - which is the Chinese firm,
Alibaba.
The Alibaba Group is larger than Amazon and eBay combined.
Unless you're in the supply chain business, few are likely to have
heard of it before. It's because the company operates predominantly in
China.
Think of Alibaba as a company that is a combination of eBay and
Amazon. It is an online company with multiple revenue streams that are
more conventional than a social network site.
Alibaba.com is a B-to-B, or business-to-business, website. It links up
businesses around the world looking for suppliers. For instance, they
link wholesalers to distributors around the world, from the UK to
China to the US.
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Alibaba Group
Operates in 240 markets
More than 500 million customers
800 million products on their website
Alibaba estimates that China's online consumer market will overtake
the US this year, and will be larger than the US and Europe combined
by 2017
More than 242 million Chinese shop online - that's six times more than in the UK
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Alibaba refers to the adventurer in the Arabian Nights who sought
treasure in exotic places - though these days it is less treasure and
more Downton Abbey memorabilia.
Its online marketplace, Tao Bao, is similar to eBay. Its name also
makes a reference to finding treasure. Its considerable presence in
the online retail space has led to its use by some analysts as a proxy
for Chinese retail price inflation. In fact, Tao Bao is so successful
that eBay closed down its Chinese site.
An offshoot is called T-mall, where domestic and increasingly foreign
companies like M&S can set up an online storefront to try and reach
its half a billion Chinese customers, according to the company's
calculations.
It also has an online payment service known as AliPay, which is like
PayPal, and is valuable for an economy developing its financial
services. Alibaba also recently bought a share in Sina Weibo, which is
like China's Twitter.
By the end of this year, the online market in China is expected to
surpass that of the US. By the end of the decade, Alibaba estimates
that China will be larger than the US and Europe combined.
This is why there is such interest in China's new global companies.
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