And the company says its expansion plans will likely involve forming deeper relationships with offline partners, such as trade exhibition partners like CeBIT.

Alibaba.com is one of the largest online B2B marketplaces in the world. The company was founded in China, but more recently has embarked on a strategy to expand both its geographic appeal, and its supplier/buyer numbers.

Alibaba.com vice-president for global operations Kenneth Liu said that currently about 80 per cent of suppliers on the Alibaba.com marketplace were from China. But that was about to change.

“Within the next three years, you’ll see a lot more suppliers on Alibaba.com from outside China – from the US, Russia, Eastern Europe, and the rest of the Asia Pacific,” Mr Liu said.

Mr Liu joined Alibaba.com recently from the global manufacturing giant Solectron, the US company which boasts more than 180,000 employees worldwide.

Mr Liu was recruited to rapidly expand the Alibaba.com global presence. Although the company is already one of the largest online B2B markets in the world, expansion of its supplier base and the number of buyer members has been made a top priority.

The company is a strategic partner of CeBIT Asia 2007, a relationship Mr Liu said may expand in future to include other CeBIT worldwide events.

“We’re very strong online obviously, but now offline we will start to use a lot more partners (to expand our business),” Mr Liu said.

“We will definitely use trade shows. That will be one of the keys to taking our name into other geographies,” he said.

“CeBIT, because it operates in so many different geographies could become a very important partner for Alibaba.com,” Mr Liu said.