Which e-commerce company operates the Taobao and Tmall online marketplaces?

Alibaba Group operates the Taobao and Tmall online marketplaces. The Chinese technology company was founded by Jack Ma and 17 co-founders in Hangzhou in 1999.

Taobao is a consumer-to-consumer and small-business marketplace, while Tmall focuses on branded retail and business-to-consumer sales. Both services are central parts of Alibaba’s China commerce operations, but they serve different seller and shopping models.

Alibaba Group is often confused with Alibaba.com, its international business-to-business platform. Alibaba.com is one service within the wider group, which also has logistics, cloud-computing, entertainment, and financial-technology interests. Taobao and Tmall are not separate companies; they are major marketplace businesses operated by the group.