Alibaba is China's biggest online commerce company, best described as Amazon, eBay and Paypal rolled into one.
Its most popular website, Taobao in China helps Alibaba to connect its 250 million shoppers to more than 800 million products, helping the company put through 80 per cent of all online retail sales in China.
Last financial year, it posted a US$3.5 billion profit.
Evan Lucas from IG Markets explains, that massive reach can make it quite appealing to investors.
At $22 billion, the IPO became one of the the world's biggest.
It’s shares had a spectacular start, closing 38.1 per cent higher at $93.89 giving it a market capitalisation of US$242billion, but that’s well below some of the world's biggest including Apple, Exxon and Google.
Its largest shareholders, Softbank and Yahoo stand to make a solid return from their investments, but the company's founder, Jack Ma stands to earn around US$4 billion for the sharemarket listing.
Jack Ma
The founder of China's e-commerce giant Alibaba is buying into a Chinese financial software firm. (AAP)
- 49 years old
- Founded Alibaba in 1995 from his apartment in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou
- No formal background in computing and professes to know little about technology
- Forbes estimates his net worth to be around US$11 billion.
- Stands to make as much as US$4.2 billion from the IPO
- Has advised he'll give away much of his wealth to charity
