Alibaba.com IPO Prospectus

We are the leading B2B e-commerce company in China. According to iResearch, we were the largest online B2B company in China in 2006 based on the number of registered users and had a majority of the B2B e-commerce market share in China by revenue. We operate two marketplaces — our international marketplace and our China marketplace. Our international marketplace (www.alibaba.com), which is in English, focuses on global importers and exporters and our China marketplace (www.alibaba.com.cn), which is in Chinese, focuses on suppliers and buyers trading domestically in China.

According to Alexa.com, our combined international and China marketplaces were the most-visited websites in the world in two “Business” categories — “E-Commerce” and “International Business and Trade” — as measured by user traffic during the three months ended June 30, 2007.

Our online B2B marketplaces provide an efficient, trusted platform to facilitate e-commerce between business sellers, whom we refer to as “suppliers”, and wholesale buyers, whom we refer to as “buyers”. Suppliers and buyers come to our marketplaces to establish their presence on the Internet, identify potential trading partners and interact with each other to conduct business online.

Suppliers, and in certain cases buyers, use our marketplaces to host their company profiles and catalogs in standardized formats, which we refer to as “storefronts”, and post product and service listings and trade leads, which we refer to as “listings”. Users can view storefronts and listings in over 30 industry categories and nearly 5,000 product categories by keyword searching or browsing through our online industry directory.

For many suppliers wishing to market products and services through online channels, their storefronts or listings on our marketplaces are their only presence on the Internet. As of June 30, 2007, suppliers had established over 2.4 million storefronts on our marketplaces. In the first half of 2007, our users posted a monthly average of 2.9 million new listings on our marketplaces.

Through active listings, inquiry exchanges, instant messaging, discussion forums and other easyto- use community features provided by us, suppliers and buyers have formed large, interactive online communities on our marketplaces. For example, during the month ended June 30, 2007, there were over 540,000 peak simultaneous online users of TradeManager, our instant messaging tool for trade communications. Users have formed many communities based on common business interests, which further facilitate interaction among them and enhance their community experience. Currently, our international and China marketplaces collectively host over 200 online forums and have over 4.2 million registered forum users.

In order to enhance the breadth and depth of our marketplaces, we offer basic features and services to all registered users at no charge. We earn our revenue from suppliers who purchase services from us, primarily membership packages that provide priority placement of supplier storefronts and listings in the industry directory and search results on our marketplaces. We refer to suppliers who subscribe for our membership packages as our “paying members”. We generate additional revenue by offering value-added services to our paying members, including purchases of additional keywords to improve rankings in search results on our marketplaces and premium placements on our web pages to increase exposure to potential buyers. We strive to balance these free and fee-based service offerings to ensure that we continue to grow our community of users and sustain our revenue growth.

We have experienced significant growth in our user base and revenue. Over the past three years, the number of our registered users increased from 6.0 million as of December 31, 2004 to 11.0 million as of December 31, 2005 and to 19.8 million as of December 31, 2006, and the number of our paying members grew from over 77,000 as of December 31, 2004 to over 141,000 as of December 31, 2005 and to over 219,000 as of December 31, 2006. During the same period, our revenue increased from RMB359.4 million in 2004 to RMB738.3 million in 2005 and to RMB1,363.9 million in 2006. As of June 30, 2007, we had 24.6 million registered users and over 255,000 paying members. Our revenue in the six months ended June 30, 2007 was RMB957.7 million.

Our headquarters are located in Hangzhou, China.

Click Here, Download Alibaba.com (HK:1688) IPO Prospectus

Alibaba.com Limited (01688)

Important
Expected Timetable
Contents
Summary
Definitions
Forward-Looking Statements
Risk Factors
Information about this Prospectus and the Global Offering
Directors and Parties involved in the Global Offering
Corporate Information
Our History and Reorganization
Industry Overview
Our Business
Financial Information
Cornerstone Investors
Future Plans and Use of Proceeds
Relationship with Alibaba Group
Connected Transactions
Supervision and Regulation
Directors and Senior Management
Substantial Shareholders
Share Capital
Underwriting
Structure of the Global Offering
How to apply for Hong Kong Offer Shares
Appendix I - Accountants¡¦ Report
Appendix II - Unaudited Pro Forma Financial Information
Appendix III - Profit Forecast
Appendix IV - Property Valuation
Appendix V - Taxation and Foreign Exchange
Appendix VI - Summary of Constitution of the Company and Cayman Companies Law
Appendix VII - Statutory and General Information
Appendix VIII - Documents delivered to the Registrar of Companies and available for Inspection

About Alibaba:

Alibaba (SEHK: 1688) (Chinese: 阿里巴巴; pinyin: ā lǐ bā bā) is a Hangzhou-based e-commerce/e-auction company, specializing in global trading. It was founded in 1999 by Ma Yun (Jack Ma), and operates five e-commerce sub-companies which operate different aspects of trading.

Ma Yun (Jack Ma) - CEO, Alibaba.com

Jack Ma is among the earliest entrepreneurs in pioneering e-commerce applications in China. His innovative concepts and works, especially the establishment of Alibaba.com in 1999, have greatly enriched the landscape of business Internet applications worldwide. Ma is the first mainland China entrepreneur to be featured on the cover of America’s leading financial magazine, Forbes. He was selected as one of the 100 “Future Leaders” of the globe by “World Economy Forum” in 2001.

Prior to building Alibaba into an international company, Ma founded the China Pages in 1995, the first Chinese language commercial information publishing website, after which he joined the information department of the China International Electronic Commerce Center (CIECC) under China's Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC). During this period, Ma devoted himself to developing the official website of MOFTEC and China’s on-line commercial transaction market.

With Ma’s recent venture of Taobao.com, Alibaba formally entered the C2C field. Taobao.com has risen to become a leader in China's consumer e-commerce market within two years. Alipay.com, the independent third party payment platform, was simultaneously founded, ensuring Alibaba’s leading role in China’s e-commerce field.