The Alibaba Group has dominated the e-commerce sector in China. According to data from Bain & Co, the company held three-fourths of the market share in the mainland. However, Alibaba knows that it has to do more than e-commerce to enhance its own e-commerce business.

The company knows that the data from its operations would be crucial to its growth. The firm's three data centers in the mainland could process more than a single petabyte of data in one day. According to a Reuters report, this was three times what it would take to store the DNA of the entire population in the US.

Alibaba's Chief Strategy Officer Zeng Ming told Reuters, "There's great value in pulling together data about users. We have a unique understanding of how to leverage the power of technology to really push economic transformation in China."

Reuters reported that cloud computing services, Alipay, online shopping search, Internet TV set-top boxes, a mobile operating system and a digital mapping service were among the services offered by Alibaba to its clients.