They are not the same company. In 2004, Alipay was spun off from Taobao.com and gradually provided payment services to more partners, becoming China's largest third-party payment platform.

Taobao.com is the largest online retail business district in the Asia-Pacific region, founded by Alibaba Group in May 2003.

On June 16, 2011, Taobao, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group, was spun off into three independent companies, namely Taobao.com (Taobao), which continues the original C2C business, Taobao Mall (Tmall), a platform-based B2C e-commerce service provider, and eTao, a one-stop shopping search engine. In the new structure, the three companies after Taobao's spin-off adopt the mechanism of president and chairman.

On the morning of January 11, 2012, Taobao Mall officially announced its name change to "Tmall".

Alipay (China) Network Technology Co., Ltd. is a leading third-party payment platform in China, dedicated to providing "simple, safe and fast" payment solutions. Since its establishment in 2004, Alipay has always taken "trust" as the core of its products and services. It has two independent brands, "Alipay" and "Alipay Wallet". Since the second quarter of 2014, it has become the world's largest mobile payment company.