Big data

To expand its own e-commerce business, Alibaba recognizes it has to do more than just e-commerce.

Through its range of products, customers can pay for online purchases and invest their savings in funds through AliPay; businesses can get loans, and companies and local governments can store data on Alibaba's cloud computing services. It also has an online shopping search engine, a mobile operating system, Internet TV set-top boxes, a digital mapping service, and an 18 percent stake in Sina Weibo, China's most popular micro-blogging service.

The data from these businesses is crucial to Alibaba.

Alibaba has three data centers in China, and in a single day can process more than 1 petabyte of data - three times what it takes to store the entire US population's DNA.

"There's great value in pulling together data about users," says Alibaba's Zeng. "We have a unique understanding of how to leverage the power of technology to really push economic transformation in China."