Alibaba.com

This case focuses on the strategic issues of an emerging dot-com in a rapidly emerging Internet nation-China. Alibaba, a bulletin board company based in Hangzhou, China, is trying to carve out a niche in the B-to-B e-commerce world. It also shows the speed and complexity of strategy evolution and the fascinating set of problems that a player in this new space must confront. Whether the company will ultimately survive or not is very much a question. The issues are surprisingly similar to those which confront companies in Western Europe and the United States.