Alibaba Group was founded in 1999 by Jack Ma and became a major Chinese e-commerce group. Ma and a team of co-founders established the company in Hangzhou, China, initially focusing on business-to-business internet commerce.
Alibaba later developed or operated platforms including Taobao, Tmall, and Alibaba.com. Taobao serves consumer-to-consumer commerce, while Tmall focuses on brands and retailers selling to consumers. The group also expanded into cloud computing, logistics, digital media, and other services.
Alibaba is not the same company as Alipay. Alipay originated within Alibaba but became part of Ant Group after a corporate restructuring. Alibaba’s shares have traded in New York and Hong Kong, and the company has frequently ranked among the largest publicly traded Chinese companies by market capitalization.