ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 offers a historical overview of Alibaba’s business development. It delineates, documents and assesses Alibaba’s evolution in the past two decades – from its inception in Hangzhou in 1999 toward its debut on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014 – and situates this history in a broader political–economic context. In particular, this chapter divides the historical process into three periods: (1) “Export from China (1999–2008),” during which Alibaba primarily fulfilled the role of a digital broker connecting Chinese suppliers and transnational buyers; (2) “Export to China (2008–2014),” during which the company gradually turned its focus to exploiting China’s domestic consumer market; and (3) “Infrastructuralization and Internationalization (post-2014),” when the company’s 2014 New York initial public offering (IPO) enabled it to become fully integrated into China’s political economy, increasingly serving as a part of the basic infrastructure for the rise of global China.
