The company had 4,400 permanent employees in 2007, and the number of employees rose to around 66,500 by 2018. At the company u. a. Yahoo and Softbank involved. Sales on Alibaba Group's Chinese retail platforms totaled over 4.8 trillion yuan ($677 billion) in 2017.
In the Forbes Global 2000 of the world's largest companies, the Alibaba Group ranks 59th (as of 2019). Alibaba had a market value of approximately USD 500 billion in mid-2018, making it one of the world's financially strongest companies.
According to Alibaba's latest financial reports and stock price the company's current price-to-earnings ratio (TTM) is 18.4564. At the end of 2022 the company had a P/E ratio of 47.9.
The Price/Earnings ratio measures the relationship between a company's stock price and its earnings per share. A low but positive P/E ratio stands for a company that is generating high earnings compared to its current valuation and might be undervalued. A company with a high negative (near 0) P/E ratio stands for a company that is generating heavy losses compared to its current valuation.
Companies with a P/E ratio over 30 or a negative one are generaly seen as "growth stocks" meaning that investors typically expect the company to grow or to become profitable in the future. Companies with a positive P/E ratio bellow 10 are generally seen as "value stocks" meaning that the company is already very profitable and unlikely to strong growth in the future.