{"id":10878,"date":"2018-08-24T13:00:48","date_gmt":"2018-08-24T17:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mapsofworld.com\/answers\/?p=10878"},"modified":"2021-03-10T08:40:28","modified_gmt":"2021-03-10T12:40:28","slug":"alibaba-group-global-retail-empire-emerge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mapsofworld.com\/answers\/business\/alibaba-group-global-retail-empire-emerge\/","title":{"rendered":"How did the Alibaba Group and its Global Retail Empire emerge?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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Inspired from the Arabic story of\u00a0 \u2018One Thousand and One Nights<\/em>,\u2019 <\/i><\/span>the founder of the company, \u2018Jack Ma,\u2019 named it \u2018Alibaba.<\/em>\u2019 Largely associated with the mythical legend of\u00a0 \u2018Alibaba and Forty Thieves<\/em>,<\/i><\/span> \u2018the company was founded by a former English teacher in Hangzhou, in eastern China.<\/p>\n

As one of the richest men of China, and the Executive Chairman of Alibaba group, Jack Ma aims at building a global retail empire and dominant force in the Chinese e-commerce. This dream is supported by the company\u2019s current market value of $264 billion and approximately 450 million customers.<\/p>\n

As revealed by the Synergy Research Group, the Alibaba cloud, also called\u00a0 \u2018Aliyun<\/strong>,\u2019<\/span> had for the first time been ranked in the top five cloud infrastructure services, others including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, IBM and Google.<\/p>\n

The blossoming of the company into a valuable and diverse corporation of the world started in 1999, by the incumbent Executive Chairman \u2018Jack Ma\u2019 and 18 other people. It was launched to help small-scale Chinese exporters, manufacturers and entrepreneurs, to sell internationally.<\/p>\n

The company firmly believes in the \u2018extensive use of internet,\u2019 for creating a level playing field for the small enterprises, in the domestic and global economies.<\/p>\n

The launch of the company\u2019s online retail platforms was fortunately timed, following the boom of \u2018consumer internet,\u2019 in China. These were\u00a0 Alibaba.com<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong> (Business to Business) and\u00a0 1688.com <\/span><\/strong>(Business to Consumer). This was met with cash-raising from banks and further establishment of\u00a0 Taobao.com<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong> (Customer to Customer). This was coordinated with the launch of instant messaging tool\u00a0 Aliwangwang<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong> and\u00a0 Alipay<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong> (third-party online payments). These three together lay the foundation for the current Alibaba Group of e-commerce, logistics and finance.<\/p>\n

The strict Chinese internet controlling policies helped in boosting the company. The Chinese government feared the foreign entities capturing the Chinese markets at the cost of local corporations. Hence, the Chinese government set up a massive internet filtering and censorship program. This fostered Alibaba\u2019s grip on the exploding internet consumers in China.<\/p>\n

In the three years that followed, Alibaba launched three more ventures, namely the\u00a0 Taobao University<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0 (an online e-commerce education program),\u00a0 Alimama<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0 (an online marketing program) and\u00a0 Tmall<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong> (online marketplace for third-party products).<\/p>\n

The 10th\u00a0 anniversary of the company was celebrated in 2009, by establishing the Alibaba cloud and acquiring leading Chinese IP provider. The success was prolonged by forming\u00a0 Juhuasuan<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0 (a group buying marketplace),\u00a0 Aliexpress<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0 (a global marketplace for Chinese exporters) and\u00a0 DianDianChong<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0 (social networking mobile app).<\/p>\n

In the 2000s, the company made its mark on the global economy by being one of the most prolific investors in the world. It also grabbed global headlines for the biggest IPO (initial public offering), making it one of the leading valuable company in the Standard and Poor Index. Showing what a contending force China is, Alibaba has been at the forefront of the Artificial Intelligence Revolution \u2013 using machine learning to fuel sales, marketing and customer service.<\/p>\n

While making profits, the company also believes in social causes and responsibility, as well as solving environmental and humanitarian purposes. It announced that it would contribute 0.3% of its annual revenue to environmental awareness and conservation efforts around the world. It has also set up the\u00a0 Alibaba Foundation<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong> to tackle social issues.<\/p>\n

The following is the list of the principal offices of the Alibaba Group-<\/strong><\/p>\n