Temat: Alibaba Group a global e-commerce leader ( led by Jack Ma )

http://www.alibaba.com/

Alibaba Group is a global e-commerce leader and the largest e-commerce company in China. Since it was founded in 1999, the Alibaba Group has grown to include six core member companies:

* Alibaba.com - Alibaba.com (1688.HK) is the Alibaba Group's flagship company and the leading B2B e-commerce company in China, serving small and medium sized enterprises in China and around the world
* Taobao - A leading online shopping marketplace for consumers in China
* Alipay - China's leading online payment service
* Yahoo! China - A search engine and lifestyle portal, acquired from Yahoo! Inc. in October 2005
* Alisoft - An Internet-based business management software company targeting SMEs in China
* Alimama - An online advertising exchange for web publishers and advertisers to trade online advertising inventory in China

History & Milestones

1999 Alibaba Group officially established, led by Jack Ma and Alibaba's 18 founders working out of a Hangzhou apartment
1999-2000 Alibaba raises US$25 million from Softbank, Goldman Sachs, Fidelity, and other institutions
2003 May: Consumer e-commerce site Taobao is founded, again in Jack Ma's apartment
2004 Online payment system Alipay is launched
2005 October: Alibaba.com forms a strategic partnership with Yahoo! Inc. and takes over the operation of Yahoo! China
2007 January: Business software services company Alisoft is launched
November 6: Alibaba.com Limited lists on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange
November 20: Alibaba Group launches Alimama, an online advertising exchange company

alibaba.com

Alibaba.com (1688.HK) is the leading B2B e-commerce company in China. We provide an efficient, trusted platform connecting small and medium-sized buyers and suppliers from China and around the world. Our international marketplace (http://alibaba.com) focuses on global importers and exporters and our China marketplace (http://alibaba.com.cn) focuses on suppliers and buyers trading domestically in China. Together our marketplaces form a community of more than 24 million members from over 200 countries and regions, as of June 30, 2007.

Founded in 1999, Alibaba.com is the flagship business of the Alibaba Group and one of the world's premier e-commerce brands. Our operational headquarters is based in Hangzhou in eastern China. We have field sales and marketing offices in more than 30 cities in China, Hong Kong, Switzerland and the United States. The company had more than 4,400 full-time employees as of June 30, 2007.
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Taobao
Taobao operates an online shopping marketplace for consumers in China under the names "Taobao" and "淘宝" ("Taobao" in Chinese). With a registered user base of approximately 39.9 million as of June 30, 2007, Taobao facilitates transactions between individual consumers and a wide range of sellers including individuals and retailers. Sellers may post new and used goods for sale on the Taobao marketplace either through a fixed price or negotiated sale or by auction. Consumers may search, shop and transact with sellers on the Taobao marketplace. Alibaba Group founded Taobao, headquartered in Hangzhou, in 2003.
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alipay
Alipay is an online payment services provider operating under the names "Alipay" and
"支付宝" ("Alipay" in Chinese). Alipay's service enables individuals and businesses to execute payments online in a safe and secure manner. Alipay's users are primarily buyers and sellers engaging in e-commerce transactions. With a registered user base of approximately 43.5 million as of June 30, 2007, Alipay is an accepted online payment method for many online retail websites and other online goods and service providers in China as well as the designated online payment service provider on our China marketplace and on Taobao. Alipay partners with domestic PRC banks to provide an escrow service for payments, which reduces the settlement risks faced by Alipay's customers in their
e-commerce transactions. Alibaba Group founded Alipay, headquartered in Hangzhou, in 2004.
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Yahoo! China
Yahoo! China's website operates Chinese language portal services, such as email and the provision of finance, sports, lifestyle and entertainment information, as well as a web search service that crawls and indexes web pages generally available on the Internet targeted at individual Internet users in China. Yahoo! China's paying customers primarily consist of advertisers that purchase fixed price banner advertisements, text-links or auction-based pay-for-performance marketing services on Yahoo! China's website. In October 2005, Alibaba Group acquired Yahoo! China in a transaction whereby Yahoo! became a substantial shareholder of Alibaba Group. In connection with this transaction, Yahoo! agreed to grant to Alibaba Group the exclusive rights to use in China the "Yahoo!" name and certain technologies owned by Yahoo!, as well as the right to sub-license these rights to other members of Alibaba Group. Yahoo! China is headquartered in Beijing.
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alisoft.com
Alisoft develops, markets and delivers Internet-based business management software targeting SMEs in China. Alisoft's software provides its customers with various tools, including enterprise management tools, such as email, customer inquiries and information management, and basic financial management tools, such as invoicing and bookkeeping. Alisoft owns the copyright and other proprietary software rights of the "阿里旺旺" ("Aliwangwang" in Chinese) instant messaging communication tool, which is the designated instant messaging communication tool for Taobao and which we offer to our users as TradeManager on our international marketplace and as 贸易通 (TradeManager in Chinese) on our China marketplace. Alibaba Group founded Alisoft, with operations in Hangzhou and Shanghai, in January 2007.
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alisoft.com
Alimama is China's leading online advertising exchange, which allows web publishers and advertisers to trade online advertising inventory. A wholly owned subsidiary of Alibaba Group, Alimama is designed to serve the more than one million small- and medium- sized websites in China which generate an estimated 80% of China's website traffic. Alimama helps connects these web publishers to advertisers, allowing them to monetize their website traffic while offering advertisers an affordable way to reach highly targeted audience groups.