E-commerce and retail service platforms
Alibaba.com has three main services: the English language portal Alibaba.com, which handles sales between importers and exporters from more than 240 countries and regions
the Chinese portal 1688.com, which manages domestic B2B trade in China,
and transaction-based retail website AliExpress.com(全球速卖通), which allows smaller buyers to buy small quantities of goods at wholesale prices.
Taobao Marketplace (淘宝网), offering a variety of products for retail sales. Taobao grew to become China’s largest C2C online shopping platform and later became the second most visited web site in China
In April 2008, Taobao introduced a spin-off, Taobao Mall (淘宝商城, later Tmall.com), an online retail platform to complement the Taobao C2C portal
In 2010, Alibaba launched AliExpress.com, an online retail service made up of mostly small Chinese businesses offering products to international online buyers.
It is the most visited E-Commerce platform in Russia.[85] It allows small businesses in China to sell to customers all over the world, resulting in a wide variety of products. It might be more accurate to compare AliExpress to eBay, though, as sellers are independent; it simply serves as a host for other businesses to sell to consumers.[86] Similar to eBay, sellers on Aliexpress can be either companies or individuals.
It connects Chinese businesses directly with buyers.
The main difference from Taobao is that it’s aimed primarily at international buyers, mainly the USA, Russia, Brazil and Spain.
In 2013, Alibaba and six large Chinese logistics companies (including SF Express) established a company called Cainiao for delivery of packages in China. This network gradually grew to 14 local logistics companies in 2014.[88]
In 2016, Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall, two of the world’s largest and most popular online retail marketplaces
As of February 2018, Taobao reached 580 million monthly active users, while Tmall achieved 500 million monthly active users.
In October 2016, Alibaba launched Alitrip, later named Fliggy, an online travel platform that is designed as an online mall for brands such as airline companies and agencies.
Fliggy set the target audience as younger generation and it strives to become a one-stop service when they plan their trips, particularly in overseas travel.
On 7 August 2017, Alibaba Group and Marriott International hotel group announced a comprehensive strategic co-operation. Two companies will set up a joint venture company. Through the docking technology system and the superiority resources, Fliggy has Marriott hotel flagship store. It has the same function with Marriott Chinese website and Marriott mobile app to create the best global travel experience for consumers.
In 2017, Alibaba started opening a chain of supermarkets, named Hema (盒马, lit. box horse), as part of the company’s “new retail strategy,” where customers can either order in the store or online for delivery in under 30 minutes. It offers a mobile app that recommends customers products based on data analytics.[107] In addition, customers can have their groceries cooked to eat in the food court of the supermarket.