MOSCOW, October 14 (RIA Novosti) – Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group is launching an internet cloud service, amid users' increasing reliance on smartphones and tablets, China News reported Tuesday.
According to the news outlet, cloud computing, which will allow users to access Alibaba's standard services from any kind of Internet-connected devices, will help increase the effectiveness of modern businesses.
With more than 270 million active buyers at the company's most popular online shopping websites - Taobao, Aliexpress and Tmall, and an annual revenue of $8.5 billion in 2013, Chinese Alibaba is considered to be a growing threat to the western e-commerce giants Amazon and E-bay, both of which have cloud infrastructure.
Last month, Alibaba was named the most successful company in China by the Fortune China ranking, which followed the company's initial public offering making, where Alibaba raised a record $25.3 billion.
Alibaba was founded by Jack Ma, a former English teacher, in 1999 and has profited from China's consumer class by dominating the e-commerce industry in the country. According to Chinese media, Ma is currently the wealthiest person in China.
