Alibaba is a tech giant, but who actually owns it?

Alibaba is one of the largest e-commerce companies in the world. In 2025 alone, its parent company, Alibaba Group, moved more than $1.26 trillion in products, almost five times more than Walmart. But despite its massive reach, Alibaba doesn’t have a single owner: it’s a publicly traded company owned by its shareholders. The reason for its success is no secret: it’s a great way to get just about anything (but especially electronics), often at low prices. So where is this company based, who are some of its major shareholders, and what other organizations is it affiliated with? Let’s find out.

First things first: Alibaba was founded in Hangzhou in 1999. That’s right: it’s another popular app from China, just like TikTok, Temu, and Shein. There were 18 founders, including Jack Ma, Jane Jiang, Eddie Wu and Joseph Tsai. Jiang, Wu and Tsai still hold positions within the company today, while Ma stepped down as executive chairman in 2019 but remains a member of the Alibaba partnership.

According to its financial reports, Alibaba’s directors and officers own a combined 1.9% of all shares, with institutional shareholders like PrimeCap Management holding significant stakes. As of this writing, approximately 1,800 organizations own shares of Alibaba, although no single entity has a majority stake.

In recent years, the Alibaba Group has diversified significantly. In addition to operating Alibaba, the organization launched AliExpress in 2010, targeting consumers rather than wholesalers. Then, in 2023, Qwen was released. It was Alibaba’s competitor to ChatGPT and has since racked up billions of downloads, even powering Apple Intelligence features in China.

As you would expect from a multi-billion dollar company, Alibaba Group has an extremely diverse portfolio. Here’s a look at some of the companies and platforms it owns, operates or has invested in at the time of writing:

• Alipay: online payment platform with 1.3 billion users

• AliOS: Linux-based operating system for cars and Internet of Things (IoT) devices

• Taobao: a consumer-to-consumer marketplace similar to eBay

• Weibo: microblogging platform similar to Twitter with approximately 600 million monthly users.

• Youku: video streaming service offering cartoons, movies and TV shows

• South China Morning Post: newspaper based in Hong Kong

• Damai Entertainment Holdings: Entertainment company investing in film, television and live events

This approach allows Alibaba to target consumers across multiple verticals, countries and media, helping to maximize profits. As one of the biggest beneficiaries of the shift to online commerce, it’s no surprise that the company is equally optimistic about other technological developments. The company’s success is arguably due to its brand recognition, broad diversification and rapid development of its own offerings in emerging technologies.