Alibaba's service types mainly include TrustPass membership, wholesale procurement, advertising, online and offline services, b2b, foreign trade, and domestic trade.

Alibaba is China's largest Internet company and the world's second largest Internet company. It was founded by Jack Ma in 1999 as an online business-to-business trading market platform.

In May 2003, Jack Ma invested 100 million yuan to establish Taobao, a personal online trading market platform.

In October 2004, Alibaba invested in the establishment of Alipay and launched a secure transaction service based on an intermediary for the Chinese e-commerce market. Alibaba established its corporate headquarters in Hong Kong and its China headquarters in Hangzhou, China, and established three branches and joint ventures overseas in Silicon Valley, London, and other places in the United States. It also has sales centers in more than 40 cities in China.

On February 10, 2014, Alibaba made a comprehensive acquisition of AutoNavi's shares.

At 11:11 on June 5, Evergrande held a press conference at the Royal Peninsula Hotel, announcing that Alibaba Group invested 1.2 billion in Evergrande Football, with Evergrande and Alibaba each holding 50% of the shares.

On September 19, 2014, Alibaba landed on the New York Stock Exchange, with an issue price of US$68 per American depositary share, becoming the largest IPO in the United States in terms of financing.