Chinese e-commerce business Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. announced yesterday that it hit the 3 trillion Yuan milestone (approximately $463 billion) over its China retail marketplaces in less than a year.
Joe Tsai, executive vice chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., said in a blog post that this reflects economic growth in China.
“The shift toward consumption and services is a massive transformation that will drive a new Chinese economy for years to come,” Tsai said in the blog post. “At the heart of this new economy is Alibaba.”
Forbes reported that Daniel Zhang, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s CEO, said at a press conference that the company is pursuing its goal of 6 trillion Yuan by 2020.
To achieve this, Alibaba will have to expand its products and service offerings in China, and appeal to the population of Chinese shoppers not using online shopping sites by pushing into rural areas and making imported products more accessible to the Chinese market, according to Forbes.
“Our Rural Taobao initiative has thus far penetrated over 12,000 of China’s 600,000 villages to bring everyday items that city dwellers normally enjoy to the rural population,” Tsai said in the blog post. “As you can see, we still have a lot of work ahead of us.”
