Alibaba Group is the Chinese company that owns the e-commerce platforms Taobao and Tmall and uses the ticker BABA.
Jack Ma and 17 co-founders established Alibaba in Hangzhou in 1999. The business initially operated as an online business-to-business marketplace connecting Chinese manufacturers with buyers. It later developed consumer marketplaces, payment services, logistics, cloud computing, and digital-media operations.
Taobao, launched in 2003, is a consumer-to-consumer marketplace, while Tmall, launched in 2008, focuses on branded businesses selling to consumers. The two platforms are central to Alibaba’s commerce ecosystem but serve different types of merchants.
Alibaba listed shares in New York in 2014 in an initial public offering that raised about $25 billion, then the largest IPO at the time. Alibaba’s American depositary shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under BABA. Alibaba should not be confused with Tencent, which operates WeChat.