The Chinese E-Commerce market is dominated by local players, most of them have no presence in the western world. The e-commerce market in China represents a huge business development opportunities both for European companies that already operate in the Chinese market, both for those who are about to enter it. This extraordinary growth is due to a number of concomitant factors. First, the rise of the middle class in China (from 200 million to 800 million people in the next 20 years). Secondly, government policies will be important to encourage the extension of high-speed internet and mobile internet devices, such as mobile phones, tablets, etc., which already make the cost of internet connecting much cheaper than in other emerging economy countries. Finally, the growth of e-commerce is goint to be supported by continuous improvement of shipping services and the low incidence of their cost on the final price. To understand the exact dimensions of the phenomenon, on Friday, 19th September, the Chinese giant of e-commerce Alibaba made its debut on Wall Street. Priced at US$68 a share, Alibaba would raise US$21.7 billion with the offering of 320 million shares, the highest in American history. Speaking to CNBC television, Jack Ma, Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group, said: "We have a dream; we hope in the next 15 years, the world will change. We want to be bigger than Wal-Mart." Regarding Alibaba, some analysts were also optimistic, in fact they said: "Alibaba has become the biggest e-commerce firm in the world in terms of gross merchandise volume. It will continue to retain the mammoth share of online shoppers, even if it is not able to increase it much." Furthermore, they recommend buying Alibaba with a target price of US$90, because it comes the opportunity to invest in China's largest e-commerce platform, which has the potential to dominate global online commerce over time. All of that, it will allow to investors to get a piece of the huge Chinese market, but it also will fuel Alibaba's international ambitions. Alibaba decided to list in New York because it wanted an alternative class share structure to give selected minority shareholders extra control over the board given that Hong Kong bourse declined to change its rules. The gLAWcal Team LIBEAC project Friday, 19 September 2014 (Source: Channel News Asia) This news has been realized by gLAWcal—Global Law Initiatives for Sustainable Development in collaboration with the University Institute of European Studies (IUSE) in Turin, Italy and the University of Piemonte Orientale, Novara, Italy which are both beneficiaries of the European Union Research Executive Agency IRSES Project “Liberalism in Between Europe And China” (LIBEAC) coordinated by Aix-Marseille University (CEPERC). This work has been realized in the framework of Workpackages 4, coordinated by University Institute of European Studies (IUSE) in Turin, Italy.

@