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The traditional marketplace has seen little change over the past few 100 years.
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You've got a buyer.
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You've got a seller.
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Which then leads to a transaction.
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But over the past couple of decades things have started to change at an unprecedented pace.
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And perhaps no company is reshaping that experience more than Alibaba.
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Alibaba is one of the world's largest retailers.
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The company has more than 500 million people using its shopping apps every month
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and if you're thinking its scale is limited to China, well think again.
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It has operations in more than 200 countries.
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The company was founded by CEO Jack Ma in 1999 with 17 other people.
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And he knew he was onto something big.
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When I have a competitor like Google or eBay,
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as a Chinese local company, we can learn a lot, we can improve ourselves.
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They should be careful of us.
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Alibaba set the record for the biggest IPO in history,
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which took place at the New York Stock Exchange in 2014.
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And this year, Alibaba was the first company in Asia to exceed the $400 billion valuation mark,
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an honor that had previously only been held by American companies.
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Alibaba is amongst other global eCommerce giants transforming the marketplace from this,
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to this.
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The company is made up of three main sites, Taobao, Tmall and Alibaba.com.
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Combined, they have hundreds of millions of users, and host millions of merchants and businesses.
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Which means they can pretty much be used by anyone, anywhere, for anything.
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So how does it even work?
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Meet our fictional character Jane, she lives in Beijing.
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Jane wants to buy a new blender, so she logs onto Taobao.
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She finds one she likes, being sold by, let's say Chris.
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He lives in Shanghai and sells the blenders to individuals at a competitive price.
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When Jane goes to checkout, she doesn't use her credit card.
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She uses AliPay to purchase the item. Think of it like using PayPal.
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Chris then accepts the AliPay payment from Jane.
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So where did the supplier, Chris, get the blenders from?
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Well, he bought a supply of 1,000 units on 1688.com, the popular Chinese version of Alibaba.com.
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It sells bulk orders to suppliers like himself.
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He bought his batch from a manufacturer named Keith on Tmall which allows businesses to sell wholesale.
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Keith owns a blender company and production facility in Shenzhen
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which produces the items and other kitchen appliances.
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Previously, Chris only sold to individual buyers in China.
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But recently, he's listed his blenders on AliExpress, which sells to customers outside of China.
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So now, Laura, who's living in California and found the blender on AliExpress, can also buy it from Chris.
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And yes, she can even use Alipay too.
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Of course, importing products from China into the U.S. is nothing new.
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The difference?
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Now, anyone in the world can do it from their mobile device and all through the same company.
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But it's not only eCommerce.
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Chris has been selling so many blenders lately that he wants to grow his business faster.
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But he doesn't have the money to buy more units from Keith.
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So Chris uses AntFinancial, to get financing.
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The loan helps him order an extra 10,000 units.
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So, for buying, selling, digital payments, and even financing, you've done it all in Alibaba's platforms.
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And Alibaba now includes a shipping company, a messaging app,
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a movie studio named Alibaba Pictures and more.
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Alibaba's growth is primarily fueled by China's massive population and rising middle class,
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but Jack Ma wants world domination for the company.
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That's why Alibaba is investing heavily in companies in other markets as well.
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Most of which are also being pursued by Amazon.
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The marketplace as we know it has changed forever.
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And it's likely going to be companies like Alibaba which continue to lead its evolution.
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Hey it's Uptin, thanks for watching.
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For more of our videos check out,
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Why is Hong Kong housing so expensive, here,
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and see how China is threatening
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Asia's financial centre, here.
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