History of Alibaba Group and its main Activities. Management Essay

HISTORY OF ALIBABA AND ITS MAIN ACTIVITIES
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History of Alibaba Group and its main Activities
Alibaba Group was founded in 1999 by a group of people being led by Jack Ma. According to Bloomberg.com, Jack Ma, in collaboration with 80 investors, scraped $80,000 to start an online marketplace geared towards the Chinese companies. The founders saw the emergence of growing internet technologies as a pathway to seamless possibilities for small business to grow, innovate and compete favorably in both local and global economies. Based on the springboard of the internet as leverage, Alibaba Group established a website that could aid Chinese exporters, entrepreneurs and manufacturers to access international markets. Alibaba Group has grown to be a global leader in online and mobile commerce, focusing on whole trading, retail market places, digital media, and cloud computing and entertainment product.
The growth of Alibaba unfolded in phases. It started off in 1998 by providing free information for supplies to enter the market: at that time, the Chinese trade at the international such was still at relatively toddler stage. Jack Ma focused on the needs of small business enterprises by initiating business-business electronic eCommerce (B2B), which provided free online services and information to business enthusiasts. In 2000, Porter Erisman, who is the former Vice President of Alibaba, was hired by Alibaba Group, as a foreign expert and was expected to help the Alibaba Group to venture into globalized markets (Wulf, 2010.p.436). The second phase was marked by the development of trustworthy credit certification named Trustpass, which allowed consumers to buy products without worrying over fraud and deceit (Yazdanifard, and Li, 2014 pp.3-4). The third phase was marked by the expansion of overseas markets where the suppliers and consumers. One of such outstandin...