Alibaba Group Chief Executive Jack Ma told employees that the Chinese Internet company has no plans for an initial public offering for its Taobao online retail unit, a person familiar with the situation said Friday.
Speaking at a large Taobao employee celebration Thursday evening where he was asked about plans for Taobao, Mr. Ma said Alibaba Group has 'no plans for an IPO' for the unit, the knowledgeable person said. 'We still have a long way to go to achieve our vision of enabling businesses to achieve their dreams on the Taobao platform,' the person quoted Mr. Ma as saying.
Taobao, which enables both individuals and big consumer brands to sell their goods online, has grown rapidly in recent years to become the most popular destination for online shoppers in China. The company says more than $29 billion of goods were sold over its site in 2009, and has said it expects to double that amount in 2010. Taobao had 170 million registered users at the end of last year.
Taobao's rapid expansion has fueled speculation that it might seek an IPO. Alibaba Group's other main unit, Alibaba.com Ltd., an online platform for smaller businesses in China and elsewhere to sell their products to international buyers, went public in Hong Kong in 2007 and currently has a market value of about $11 billion. Alibaba officials have never confirmed such plans, but Mr. Ma's statement is his most definitive about the company's intentions.
Mr. Ma said Taobao's focus for the next two to three years 'is going to be on job creation by helping small business entrepreneurs open shops' on the site.