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About Alibaba.com
Corporate Overview
 Alibaba.com
A wholly-owned subsidiary of the Alibaba Group, Alibaba.com is the world's largest online business-to-business (B2B) marketplace for global and domestic China trade. With members in more than 200 countries and territories, Alibaba.com is the number one destination for businesses to find volume buyers and suppliers from around the world.
Alibaba.com is based in Hangzhou in eastern China and has 16 sales and service centers across China, as well as offices in Hong Kong, the United States and Europe. The company has more than 3,500 full time employees as of December 31, 2006.
Our Websites
The Alibaba.com community includes two interrelated marketplaces:
| Alibaba International (www.alibaba.com) is the world's largest online B2B marketplace for global trade. More than 500,000 people visit the site every day, most of them global buyers and importers looking to find and trade with sellers in China and other major manufacturing countries. Alibaba International has more than three million registered users from over 200 countries and territories. |
| Alibaba China (www.china.alibaba.com) is the largest Chinese language B2B marketplace for domestic China trade. With more than 16 million registered users, Alibaba China is a trusted online and offline community of SMEs who regularly meet, chat, search for products and do business. |
History & Milestones
| 1999 |
March: Alibaba.com is founded in Jack Ma's apartment in Hangzhou as an online B2B marketplace (18 employees) |
| 1999-2000 |
Company raises US$25 million from Softbank, Goldman Sachs, Fidelity, and other institutions |
| 2000 |
July: Alibaba.com honored by Forbes Magazine as "Best of the Web: B2B" |
| 2001 |
December: Alibaba.com becomes the world's largest B2B e-commerce website with more than 1 million registered members |
| 2002 |
December: Company further expands market leadership in China with its "Gold Supplier" product, a premium service that allows exporters to market their companies and products online |
| 2003 |
November: Communication tool "Trade Manager" is launched, allowing buyers and sellers on Alibaba.com to communicate in real time |
| 2004 |
October: Alibaba.com becomes the only import-export website to win Forbes "Best of the Web" award five years in a row |
| 2005 |
October: Yahoo! Inc invests US$1billion in Alibaba Group and Alibaba Group acquires Yahoo! China; The strategic partnership allows both companies to leverage each other's brands and resources worldwide |
| 2006 |
February: Alibaba.com launches trade show partnership program
November: Alibaba.com appoints David Wei as President of Alibaba.com |
| 2007 |
April: Alibaba.com launches its "Gold Supplier" product in Hong Kong - the first market outside of mainland China to be offered Alibaba.com's core premium service for exporters |
(From www.alibaba.com ) |
