Chinese goliath Alibaba is the one of the world’s largest retailers and ecommerce companies. It comprises three main marketplaces – B2B Alibaba.com, C2C Taobao, and B2C Tmall – all of which sell an eclectic variety of products. Named after the character Ali Baba from the Middle Eastern One Thousand-and-One Nights folk tales, founder Jack Ma chose the name due to its famous association with the phrase “open sesame” – aiming to open the doors from Chinese retailers to the global market. Since its inception in 1999, Alibaba has grown to boast a 60% share of the Chinese ecommerce market. Its primary sales events on November 11, Singles’ Day, offers massive discounts as well as a countdown-to-midnight gala featuring performances from global stars. Alibaba believes this combination of content, community and entertainment marks a new type of interactive retail of the future. Alternative Chinese marketplace JD.com is Tmall’s biggest competitor – and both have overtaken Amazon as the most popular online marketplaces in Russia and India.
Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba has been hit with an Y18.3bn (£2bn) fine after an investigation ruled that it had abused its market position.
Tensions between China and the West reached boiling point last week as several countries, including the UK, imposed sanctions over human rights abuses against Uighur Muslims and retail found itself caught in the crossfire.
In the first instalment of our new Worldview series gleaning insight and inspiration from global markets, Eliam Huang analyses how China is bouncing back from Covid-19.
Alibaba has posted a spike in sales during the final quarter of 2020 following the “rapid recovery” of the Chinese economy in the wake of Covid-19.
Beijing has launched an antitrust investigation into ecommerce titan Alibaba as part of a crackdown on monopolistic behaviour in China’s booming online market.
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