Alibaba Group Holding Limited was founded in 1999 by Jack Ma and is based in Hangzhou, China. The company grew from an online wholesale marketplace into one of China’s largest digital commerce and technology platforms. Its ecosystem spans Taobao, Tmall, 1688, Alibaba.com, AliExpress, Lazada, Trendyol, Daraz, Cainiao, Amap, Fliggy, and Alibaba Cloud. Alibaba’s stated mission is “to make it easy to do business anywhere,” and its current strategy is centered on consumption, AI, and cloud infrastructure.
Alibaba’s scale still rests on commerce, but the profile is shifting. Taobao and Tmall reported one billion annual active consumers in early 2025, and Alibaba said its 88VIP membership base passed 59 million in the December 2025 quarter. On the technology side, Alibaba Cloud operated 92 availability zones across 29 regions worldwide as of December 31, 2025, while consumer-facing Qwen passed 300 million monthly active users across all platforms in February 2026. These figures show why management now treats AI and cloud as core growth engines alongside domestic commerce.
Structurally, Alibaba has been simplifying around a more integrated consumer platform. In 2025, it combined Taobao and Tmall with Ele.me and Fliggy inside Alibaba China E-commerce Group, then rebranded Ele.me as Taobao Instant Commerce during the December 2025 quarter. Alipay remains part of Ant Group rather than Alibaba itself, with Alibaba holding a 33% stake in Ant on a fully diluted basis as of September 30, 2025. The group is chaired by Joe Tsai, led by CEO Eddie Wu, and has been dual primary listed in Hong Kong and New York since August 28, 2024.