ABSTRACT
The rise of new retail in China has been driven by innovative companies that recognised emerging and unmet needs of consumers. At the end of the 1990s, three young men saw the rise of the internet and started crafting business ideas. Jack Ma’s business has its roots in trading and e-commerce, mostly focusing on facilitating small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in global marketplaces. Business ecosystems are boundaryless organisations of interdependent businesses with customer-centric offerings across different industries. The idea is that each entity in the ecosystem affects and is affected by the others, creating a constantly evolving relationship in which each entity must be flexible and adaptable to survive, as in a biological ecosystem. The Alibaba Group is the world’s largest and one of the most valuable retailers with operations in over 200 countries. In 2013, Alibaba’s ecosystem saw its second large-scale transformation, with large investments in less mature companies and more diverse fields.
