Timeline: the rise and rise of Alibaba

This week was shaken by several news coming from Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. To start, the company’s founder and CEO, Jack Ma, announced his plans to retire in 2019. Daniel Zhang is set to be his successor. Today, Alibaba and Russian technology group Mail.ru said they would launch a joint e-commerce venture in Russia and former Soviet countries. E-commerce is developing rapidly in Russia despite difficulties related to the country’s size and problematic infrastructure.