Online shopping. This internet company today has the largest revenue in the world

E commerce company

Founded in 1994 in Seattle by now immortal Jeff Bezos, Amazon has in the years since become a household name when it comes to online shopping. This internet company today has the largest revenue in the world, but its beginnings were humble. It was initially not more than an online bookstore. Take a look at this very interesting interview with Jeff Bezos from 1999 and see how unpredictable things were back then.

Largest e-commerce Alibaba express

Since 2005, Alibaba has made a lot of acquisition and investment on other firms, intending to improve its digital presence and in the meantime the internet system. The number of the companies being bought and invested is considerable. At least 26 large-scale companies have been acquired by Alibaba. The blasting fuse is the acquisition of Yahoo company, the searching company from the United States, which had cost Alibaba $7.1 billion in cash and stock to buy half of the American online firm’s holding. Since then, Alibaba kept the pace of purchasing one company every year. And the two explosive years were on 2013 and 2014. Alibaba focused on making an investment in domestic companies in these two years, including Weibo, AutoNavi, and Yintai. One of the most interesting’s investment is the one made upon Youku and Tudou in 2014, which are leading video websites in China, owning a one-fifth stake at around 3.6 billion USD, getting a better access to Youku-Tudou’s user base.

Alibaba express

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba on Friday announced it was purchasing the influential independent Hong Kong-based daily the South China Morning Post, in a move that underlines the widening ambitions of Chinese Internet billionaire Jack Ma

e commerce company news

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba surpassed its U.S. counterpart Amazon as the world's biggest e-commerce company Tuesday as the Hangzhou-based company reached the threshold of US$470 billion in market value.

Shares of Alibaba rose over 1.2 percent in mid-session on Tuesday to US$184.32, hitting a market capitalization of US$472.1 billion. Meanwhile, stock of U.S. online retailer Amazon declined 0.87 percent to US$982.35 a share, making the company's market value total US$471.9 billion.

Analysts said Alibaba regained its title of the world's biggest e-commerce company after over two years thanks to its incredible performance this year.

As one of the top performers in the New York Stock Exchange, Alibaba has gained over 100 percent since January, while Amazon rose nearly 30 percent.

The Chinese company's stock soared 12 percent in the past two months after it announced better-than-expected quarterly earnings in August.

Alibaba's net profit jumped 96 percent to more than US$2.1 billion year-on-year in the first fiscal quarter ending June, beating market expectations.

Moreover, the number of active buyers on Alibaba's retail platform climbed to 466 million, accounting for about one third of the Chinese population.

Investment banks J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley raised their long-term price targets for Alibaba from US$190,170 to US$205,200 respectively after the release of its quarterly report

e-commerce competition

Can and May

Should You Use Can or May? An Explanation Everyone Can Understand

Has anyone ever corrected your request for permission from “Can I please” to “May I please”? The difference between can and may matters quite a bit to strict grammarians, but not as much to the average English speaker. Learn when to use these words in conversation with a selection of can vs. may examples.

There are instances outside of asking for permission when you should use can instead of may. Sentences that convey a person’s ability to do something should always use can (or could, if the answer is less certain). Here are some example sentences in which can is the correct choice.

Can you play the piano?

I can’t get to the office by 3:00.

The new copy machine can staple and collate copies.

How can I tell the difference between fruits and vegetables?

Sharon can type almost 90 words a minute.

This joke plays on the idea that "can" and "may" were not always interchangeable to express permission: