Founded in 1999, Alibaba is the largest online and mobile commerce company in the world in term of gross merchandise volume (GMV). The float would value the group between $115bn (£68bn) and $245bn (£144bn).

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Alibaba takes 11.3 billion orders annually.

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There are 231 million active buyers on the site each year.

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There are 8 million active sellers.

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Customers make on average 49 orders per year.

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5 billion packages are sent out annually.

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Mobile transactions accounted for 19.7% of gross merchandise volume (GMV).

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The site takes 3.6 million transactions per minute.

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There are buyers are located in 190+ countries.

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China has the world’s largest internet population with 618 million users, according to China Internet Network Information Centre, CNNIC.