Alibaba Group in the Marketplace of China Case Study

Alibaba Group in the Marketplace of China - Case Study Example The case describes the corporate strategy of Alibaba Group, one of the leading e-commerce international organizations. The company was started in the year 1999, and since then it had grown rapidly and grasped the e-commerce market through their business approaches. Despite the financial turmoil in a global business environment, Alibaba Group had placed itself strongly in the market and beset the difficulties to progress further. The aggressive growth strategy had helped the organization to achieve the competitive advantage. The company started providing basic facilities to its users and increased its customer base. Problem Statement The creation of corporate advantage at Alibaba Group has been discussed in this segment. It also deals with the fact that if the corporate advantage thus created is sustainable. Alternative Solutions and Approaches to the Problem The main strategy which provides Alibaba Group with corporate advantage is its series of growth movements. Alibaba Group had ex panded its market reach rapidly with the introduction of Taobao in the year 2003, which is an internet shopping platform. Jack Ma understood the prospects in the e-commerce sector and accordingly had taken possible steps to achieve higher market share. The keyword bidding was becoming beneficial in China, therefore, Taobao launched â€Å"Zhi Tong Che† service in the year 2008 which provides people to bid for keywords in exchange of special advertisement status. As trust is one of the vital factors for performing business in China, Taobao had introduced â€Å"Alipay† service in the year 2004. Through this service, the company successfully eliminated the settlement risk of payment which had assisted to generate faith among sellers and customers. In the year 2005, Alibaba Group had acquired â€Å"China Yahoo!† in order to strengthen its market presence. This strategy lets Alibaba Group integrate and join resources for development. The other strategy of Alibaba Grou p included investing in the international market to attract more customers. In the year 2006, the company had invested in â€Å"Koubei.com†. Besides, the company has also started the joint business with â€Å"Softbank Corporation† in Japan.