# Alibaba Group

By [Succica](https://paragraph.com/@succica) · 2022-07-30

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**Alibaba Group Holding Limited**, also known as **Alibaba** ([Chinese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_language): 阿里巴巴), is a Chinese [multinational](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multinational_corporation) [technology company](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_company) specializing in [e-commerce](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-commerce), [retail](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retail), [Internet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet), and [technology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology). Founded on 28 June 1999 in [Hangzhou](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangzhou), [Zhejiang](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhejiang), the company provides [consumer-to-consumer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer-to-consumer) (C2C), [business-to-consumer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business-to-consumer) (B2C), and [business-to-business](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business-to-business) (B2B) sales services via [web portals](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_portal), as well as [electronic payment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_payment) services, [shopping search engines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shopping_search_engine), and [cloud computing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing) services. It owns and operates a diverse portfolio of companies around the world in numerous business sectors.

On 19 September 2014, Alibaba's [initial public offering](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_public_offering) (IPO) on [New York Stock Exchange](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Stock_Exchange) raised US$25 billion, giving the company a market value of US$231 billion and, by far, then the largest IPO in world history. It is one of the top 10 most valuable corporations, and is named the 31st-largest public company in the world on the [_Forbes_ Global 2000](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbes_Global_2000) 2020 list. In January 2018, Alibaba became the second Asian company to break the US$500 billion valuation mark, after its competitor [Tencent](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tencent). As of 2020, Alibaba has the sixth-highest global [brand valuation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_valuable_brands).

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*Originally published on [Succica](https://paragraph.com/@succica/alibaba-group)*