Alibaba was established in 1999 as a business-to-business portal connecting Chinese manufacturers to overseas buyers, essentially making it easy to do business anywhere. The group has since grown to become the largest e-commerce company in the world in terms of gross merchandise volume (GMV). For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017, Alibaba had a GMV of ¥3.8 trillion (US$0.43 trillion) and 454 million annual active buyers on its marketplaces.
Vision—“Born in China, Grow for the World”: Executive Chairman Jack Ma has a long-term vision for the company: he wants Alibaba to become a truly global company, providing solutions to real world problems and using e-commerce to help globalization by making trade more inclusive. The company’s long-term strategic goal is to serve 2 billion consumers—one-third of the world’s total population—and to support the profitable operation of 10 million businesses on its platforms by 2036. By fiscal year 2020, Alibaba expects GMV to more than double to reach US$1 trillion Alibaba—in it for the long haul: The group’s philosophy is to build long-term strategic value and drive synergies for its global business through organic growth and strategic acquisitions. Technology has been the driving force behind the phenomenal growth of the Alibaba economy, and will continue to drive it going forward. The group continuously incubates new business units, allowing them to gain traction and to generate sustainable cash flow.
AutoNavi, DingTalk, Alibaba Health
Others—local services and enabling functions of commerce: This segment comprises the key infrastructure of Alibaba’s ecosystem. Technologies such as cloud computing, payments, logistics and local services which penetrate every facet of consumers’ daily lives.
outlook :Taobao as a lifestyle destination: We expect Taobao to continue its shift from a traditional online transactions platform to a lifestyle destination platform consisting of consumer media and a community. China’s C2C e-commerce market has been shrinking as consumers turn to B2C platforms for high-quality products. We expect Taobao to remain a central community where Chinese consumers can engage and transact.
