Alibaba, the world's largest online marketplace for trade between companies, has started offering on-site transactions outside China for the first time, taking a step which brings it closer to head-on competition with global market leader Ebay.
The company yesterday launched AliExpress, a platform where businesses from China and abroad can close transactions for smaller orders.
In the past, it had only offered a platform on its main site, alibaba.com, on which corporate buyers and sellers could find each other for foreign trade, but transactions had to be conducted offline. Taobao, Alibaba's retail site, offers on-site transactions but only inside China and not between businesses.