E-commerce Alibaba (NYSE: BABA; HKEX: 9988) declared to have nearly 1 billion consumers in China and 180 million annual buyers overseas, respectively, said CEO Daniel Zhang in a speech he delivered last Friday at an event in Hangzhou, the capital city of China’s eastern Zhejiang province and where the group is based. “We have a longer-term goal: by 2036, we want to serve 2 billion consumers around the world,” he said.
Alibaba’s e-commerce ecosystem has thrived from an online spending surge in the country’s post-COVID economy. Online marketplaces of Taobao, Taobao Live, and Tmall, added 28 million mobile monthly active users (MAU) during Q2 2020, bringing the total to 874 million, KrASIA reported.
China has a population of 1.4 billion as of 2019, the number of internet users was 904 million as of March 2020. That means that Alibaba has almost hit the glass ceiling of growth in its domestic market, and if it wants to get any closer to that ambitious 2 billion target, the company would have to resort to overseas markets.
More on this please read: Alibaba’s digital economy soaks up consumer demand in Q2
This article is part of KrASIA’s “Key Stat” series, where KrASIA picks and presents the most significant figures of the day’s technology and business world.