Alibaba The next Facebook...?

Alibaba The next Facebook...?



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.