Alibaba becomes the world’s largest retailer

Global Business

Photo: AP

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd said on Wednesday that it has surpassed Wal-Mart to officially become the world’s largest retail platform. .

The company has yet to declare its financial results for its last quarter or the complete fiscal year. But the announcement claims that it surpassed the $482.1 billion revenue reported by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. for its own fiscal year ended Jan. 31.

Alibaba said in a statement that the record-breaking GMV is a result of shifting from offline to online. “We used 13 years to demonstrate the power of a different business model compared with brick-and-mortar retailers,” the statement said.

According to Alibaba, its growth has accounted for 10 percent of the overall retail volume in China and has directly generated 15 million jobs.

Alibaba has previously set a goal to achieve an annual trading volume of 6 trillion yuan ($0.928 trillion) by 2020. This in addition to helping 90 percent of its retailers increase their operational efficiency.

“In 2024, we want to be a business platform serving 2 billion consumers and tens of millions of enterprises at home and abroad,” Zhang Yong, chief executive officer of Alibaba, said a recent press event.

According to Zhang, the company will strive towards combining cloud computing and big data, with the internet and the Internet of Things, as well as consumer terminal equipment.

Story by China Daily.