Alibaba overtakes Walmart to become the World’s largest Retailer

Back there in 2014, Jack Ma of Alibaba had expressed his wish to become the World’s largest retailer and in 2016 that wish has come true. According to Stationery news, Chinese E-Commerce giant Alibaba has now surpassed America’s Walmart and bagged the position of World’s largest retailer.

Image credit: ecns.cn

With  an expected Gross Merchandise Value(GMV) of $490 billion in 2015-16, the Chinese retailing brand is the global leader in the sector.“Alibaba has become the largest retail economy in the world as measured by annual gross merchandise volume (GMV) on its China retail marketplaces,” Alibaba Group Holdings said in a press release.

Alibaba’s executive vice chairman Joe Tsai is hopeful of an even brighter 2016. The company has invested in various global ventures and aims to maximize its profit in the financial year 2016-17. Tsai further described the various challenges the company had gone through in the past 13 years and the alternative form of retailing which founder Jack Ma adopted. “We used 13 years to demonstrate the power of a different business model compared with brick-and-mortar retailers,” he said while speaking to a Chinese daily.

In an interview with the Forbes during the year 2014, Jack Ma had estimated that Alibaba would triple the total annual income within the next 20 months. The recent statistics certainly justify as to why Jack is truly a visionary with a plan of action.


Article by Rohit Jha