E-commerce giant Alibaba targets eBay and Baidu

Jack Ma, chairman of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, took aim at a range of rivals from eBay to Chinese state-owned companies at 2011 AliFest, an annual customer convention held this weekend in eastern China, the Wall Street Journal reported. Ma said Alibaba Group hopes to increase the combined transaction volume on its Taobao Marketplace and Taobao Mall to US$157 billion in 2012, up from US$62.8 billion last year. Ma said the company will use eTao, its new online shopping-search engine, to gain ground on Baidu (BIDU.NASDAQ), the operator of China’s dominant Internet search site. He also targeted state-owned banks with poor customer service in his comments, saying, “If banks don’t change, we will change banks.” Alibaba is stepping up efforts to target US customers for the first time, a move that reverses its attempt at cooperation with eBay Inc (EBAY.NASDAQ). Alibaba Group spokesman John Spelich refused to comment on the two companies’ relations, but said, “A large and growing number of consumers are interested in buying direct from China.”