Since its humble beginnings in 1999, when it was launched by Jack Ma and 17 other co-founders, Alibaba.com has become the world’s largest online business-to-business global trading marketplace, with 2.5 million and 14 million registered users in its international and Chinese domestic marketplaces respectively (refer to Appendix 1 for key development milestones). In 2004, the Alibaba websites boasted an estimated combined transaction volume of more than US$4.5 billion. Alibaba.com also owns and operates Taobao.com, a business-toconsumer and consumer-to-consumer marketplace; Alipay, an online payment system in China; and Yahoo China, which it acquired in October, 2005. Alibaba.com currently has more than 4,600 employees with an average age of 26. It was selected by China’s CCTV as one of the country’s best employers in 2005 and was recently named one of China’s Top Employers 2007 by CRF China. In just seven years, Alibaba.com has achieved award after award in recognition of its achievement and impact on e-commerce, including “Best of the Web” by Forbes Magazine for seven consecutive years, the most popular B2B website by Far Eastern Economic Review, and other awards, including China Excellent Business Website and China Best Commerce Website. Alibaba.com is frequently quoted as one of the top five websites in the world along with Yahoo, Amazon, eBay and AOL, by domestic and international media.
Jack Ma: Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Alibaba.com
Jack Ma is one of the first entrepreneurs to develop e-commerce in China. He and his team have achieved many ‘firsts’ in the area of Chinese Internet Trade. He founded the first internet commercial website in China, and created a B2B marketplace platform to all small and medium-sized enterprises in Asia and around the world. He promoted the “Trust Pass” plan on the website, which created the world’s first on-line credit platform for companies. Under Jack Ma’s leadership, the