Alibaba Group to Surpass Walmart Sales Volume in Two Years: President

MOSCOW, November 1 (RIA Novosti) - Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba said the volume of its online sales would exceed the global sales of retail company Walmart in two years, Business Insider reports. "Within two years, Alibaba's online retail volume will exceed the sales of Walmart," Xinhua news agency quoted Alibaba’s president Jin Jianhang as saying at a summit in east China's Hangzhou city.

This step will bring the company closer to the target set by its founder Jack Ma a decade ago. He told partners that Alibaba aimed to be among the world’s top 10 e-commerce websites. "Our market value is very close to being among those of the world's top 10 companies," Jin said. According to Jin, Alibaba’s business model is plans to cover various aspects of e-commerce, internet financing, smart logistics and big data platforms. The company has completed 20% of the model so far, and it will take 10 more years to finalize the process.

After its record IPO in the US, the e-commerce giant is seeking a multi-faceted expansion. The president said that going global was Alibaba’s primary goal, now reaching some two billion consumers through its online platforms. In addition, Alibaba plans to invest 10 billion yuan within three to five years to build facilities in rural areas of China to tap rising demand. "Today, China has 632 million internet users, but 700 million people still have no access. The latter provides a huge market potential for Alibaba to explore," Jin remarked. In first half of 2014, Alibaba’s total sales volume reached $151 billion. Its trading volume in the second quarter was up 45% year on year.

In 2013, Alibaba reported a gross merchandise volume of $248 billion on its three major platforms that exceeded the combined volume of eBay and Amazon.