알리익스프레스AliExpress (Chinese: 全球速卖通) is an online retail service based in China and owned by the Alibaba Group.[1] Launched in 2010,[2][3] it is made up of small businesses in China and other locations, such as Singapore, that offer products to international online buyers. It is the most visited e-commerce website in Russia[4] and was the 10th most popular website in Brazil.[5] It facilitates small businesses to sell to customers all over the world. AliExpress has drawn comparison to eBay, as sellers are independent and use the platform to offer products to buyers.[6][7]
AliExpress started as a business-to-business buying and selling portal. It has since expanded to include business-to-consumer, consumer-to-consumer, cloud computing and payment services. As of 2016 AliExpress ran websites in English, Spanish, Dutch, French, Italian, German, Polish, Turkish, Portuguese, Indonesian and Russian languages – English being the default offered to those countries with languages outside the preceding list.[8] AliExpress is often used by e-commerce stores that use a dropship business model.[9]
Sellers on AliExpress can be either companies or individuals. AliExpress is different from Amazon because it acts only as an e-commerce platform and does not itself sell products directly to consumers.[10] It directly connects Chinese businesses with buyers.
Although most of the retailers are Chinese, AliExpress is aimed at international import buyers and does not sell to customers in mainland China.[5] Customers in China use fellow Alibaba-subsidiary Taobao, because of its convenience in delivery and service, especially the payment method, Alipay. The site offers a popular affiliate marketing program where partners are rewarded with a commission on sales for sending visitors to the site.[citation needed]
In November 2020, India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology banned the AliExpress mobile phone app along with 42 other Chinese apps.[11]
In 2022, the Office of the United States Trade Representative added AliExpress to its list of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy.[12][13]
