Alibaba.com is a B2B (business-to-business) marketplace: a website where companies buy goods in bulk from manufacturers, wholesalers and exporters. It was founded in 1999 as the first business of Alibaba Group. Its about page counts over 200 million products from more than 200,000 suppliers in 40+ categories, with buyers in 190+ countries and the site in 16 languages.
A buyer searches product listings or suppliers, messages suppliers, orders samples or posts an RFQ (request for quotation), to which suppliers reply with offers. Trade Assurance protects payments and delivery from payment to receipt, and the site offers logistics services and an image search browser extension that finds similar products. Verified Supplier tags show suppliers checked on site by inspection firms such as SGS and TÜV.
Buyers join under a free membership agreement. Suppliers pay for tiered memberships, Gold Supplier and Verified Supplier, whose prices vary by region; there is no commission on offline orders.