Jack Ma is always an enigma. The founder of an e-commerce website, Ma is the richest person in China, as per Forbes report. Jack made it to the top in a span of just twenty years. The founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos is seen Alibaba as a sole threat to its business growth.According to Forbes report, as of 2015, Jack’s net worth was around $27 billion. You will be surprised to know that Alibaba’s $150 billion IPO was the largest offering in the history of New York Stock Exchange.Timeline Jack launched Alibaba back in 1999 with 18 partners working out of an apartment in Hangzhou, China. The next year, Alibaba raised $25 million firms like SoftBank, Goldman Sachs, Fidelity and more. Within three years, Jack turned around the Alibaba to become a profitable venture. In 2003, he introduced the online payment system, AliPay and the following year the group teams up with Yahoo Inc., and acquires the China operations of Yahoo.
In 2006, Alibaba invests in koubei.com. The year 2007 was significant for Alibaba Group as it makes multiple diversifications. The year saw the launch of a software entity AliSoft and the group got listed on Hong Kong Stock Exchange as well besides the launch of Alimama, the online advertising exchange firm. Not stopping at that, in 2008 the group introduced a B2C platform, TaoBao Mail to complement Tabao’s C2C marketplace. The same year the group set up R&D Institute. Besides launching its cloud computing venture in 2009, the group creates a cross-business team in the following year to execute the full-scale launch of TaoBao strategy. The year 2011 was a landmark and eventful year for Alibaba Group as five different ventures were introduced in a single year. Starting with Gap opens an inline store on TaoBao Mall, announces the relief fund for the Japanese earthquake victims, Ray Ban opens online store on TaoBao Mall and the Motion Picture Association of America lauds Alibaba.com for imposing a ban on pirated media.The following year also saw three new changes. The group announced that it will begin the process of filing for IPO in the US, also the group files registration documents to go public, one of the biggest IPO offerings in the history of America. The year 2013 also saw the group agreeing to take a 50% stake in Guangzhou Evergrande Football Club, winners of 2013 AFC Champions League, for 1.2 billion yuan ($192 million).The same year Alibaba acquires the Chinese mobile Internet Company called UCWeb. In 2014, Alibaba’s shares, BABA began trading on NYSE and the same year, the company announces the acquisition of $590 million minority stake in the Chinese smart phone manufacturer Meizu. The same year the group reports sales of $14.32 billion on China’s Single’s Day on November 11, up 60% from the previous year. In 2014, Alibaba forays into the Indian e-commerce space with 25% stake in PayTm owner One97 and also invests in Snapdeal. In 2015, Alibaba Group, along with Ant Financial invests about $680 million in the Indian e-commerce company Paytm.Also, Alibaba buys South China Morning Post and other media assets of SCMP Group for US$ 266 million in the same year besides the purchase of 33 million shares of Groupon, corresponding to 5.6% stake. Same year, it strikes a deal with media agency Oceans Sport and Entertainment to bring Ocean's non-gambling game Match Poker to China, apart from the announcing its intent on acquiring a controlling interest in the privately held Lazada Group, the "Amazon of Southeast Asia", by paying $500 million for new shares and buying $500 million worth of shares from existing investors. Last year, Alibaba officially unveiled the Roewe RX5, its first "Internet Car" in collaboration with SAIC, priced upwards of RMB 148,800 ($22,300).
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