Alibaba's Prospectus Gives Peek inside the E-Commerce Giant

(Beijing) – E-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. filed for an initial public offering in the United States on May 7. It plans to raise US$ 1 billion, but analysts' estimates range from US$ 15 billion to US$ 20 billion. The higher figure would bring Alibaba's IPO within range of surpassing Facebook's record US$16.4 billion in 2012.

Alibaba, which was founded in 1999, has become the world's largest e-commerce company by transaction value. Its three online marketplaces – consumer-to-consumer Taobao, business-to-consumer Tmall and group buying site Juhuasuan, which is akin to Groupon – together generated US$ 248 billion worth in transactions from 231 million users last year, the company said.