Alibaba's IPO architect lays out blueprint for global e-commerce empire

Alibaba, the world's biggest e-commerce company, changed how China shops. Now the man driving its blockbuster stock sale in the United States wants to transform the rest of the country's services industry, adding new users to the giant's 300 million customers.

Executive vice-chairman Joe Tsai sees an Alibaba future that stretches from banking to education, travel to entertainment. Customers will buy mutual funds using its mobile applications, safeguard homes with its insurance, and use its virtual credit cards to order goods from US websites that will arrive on China's doorsteps in 10 days.

On March 16, Alibaba said it was planning an initial public offering in the US. Analysts say it could be worth more than US$16 billion. That would surpass Facebook's 2012 listing, valuing Alibaba at more than US$140 billion.

"In five to 10 years, we're still going to be an e-commerce business, but the kind of things we sell on our platform will be a lot more diverse than just physical products," Tsai said before the listing announcement.

"We're going to be selling digital content, there's going to be services that will flow through our platforms. Our vision is to become more a part of people's lives and fulfil all their needs."

Alibaba already accounts for about 80 per cent of all online shopping by individual consumers on the mainland, which iResearch expects to reach 2.45 trillion yuan (HK$3.1 trillion) this year.