Timeline: Rise of a Chinese internet giant
Alibaba’s journey to becoming Asia’s most valuable firm
1999: Jack Ma founds Alibaba with 17 other people in Hangzhou, China, with $60,000 (Dh220,350)
2000: Alibaba Group raises $20 million from an investor group led by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp.
2003: Ma creates Taobao, an EBay-like site where consumers barter with each other
2004: Alibaba creates Alipay, the online payments system that grows to become China’s largest
2005: Alibaba takes over operations of Yahoo China
2008: Taobao Mall (now known as Tmall) is created to allow merchants to sell to customers
2010: The Alibaba Partnership is established to ensure management control of the company
2013: Jack Ma steps down as CEO, remains as executive chairman
2014: Alibaba conducts world’s largest IPO, raising $25 billion when it lists in the US
2015: Current CEO Daniel Zhang takes the helm at the company on May 10
2016: Alibaba Pictures buys a minority stake in Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners, which owns DreamWorks Pictures
2018: Alibaba buys Chinese food-delivery leader Ele.me in a deal valued at $9.5 billion; it pays $750 million for a stake in the cinema division of Chinese firm Wanda Film
