Whois & Analysis for alibaba.com

Alibaba Group Holding Limited is a Chinese e-commerce company that provides consumer-to-consumer, business-to-consumer and business-to-business sales services via web portals.

It also provides electronic payment services, a shopping search engine and data-centric cloud computing services.

The group began in 1999 when Jack Ma founded the website Alibaba.com, a business-to-business portal to connect Chinese manufacturers with overseas buyers.

In 2012, two of Alibaba's portals handled 1.1 trillion yuan ($170 billion) in sales.

Suppliers from other countries are supported (with more stringent checks than for Chinese companies), but the company primarily operates in the People's Republic of China (PRC).

At closing time on the date of its initial public offering (IPO), 19 September 2014, Alibaba's market value was US$231 billion.

However, the stock has traded down and market cap was about $212 billion at the end of December 2015.

Business-to-business (B2B) refers to a situation where one business makes a commercial transaction with another.

This typically occurs when:

International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories.

It is the exchange of goods and services among nations of the world.

In most countries, such trade represents a significant share of gross domestic product (GDP).

While international trade has existed throughout history (for example Uttarapatha, Silk Road, Amber Road, scramble for Africa, Trail of tears, Atlantic slave trade, salt roads), its economic, social, and political importance has been on the rise in recent centuries.

The term export means shipping in the goods and services out of the jurisdiction of a country.

The seller of such goods and services is referred to as an "exporter" and is based in the country of export whereas the overseas based buyer is referred to as an "importer".

In international trade, "exports" refers to selling goods and services produced in the home country to other markets.

In marketing, a product is anything that can be offered to a market that might satisfy a want or need.

In retailing, products are called merchandise.

In manufacturing, products are bought as raw materials and sold as finished goods.

A service is another common product type.