Berlin, Germany, September 12, 2007 - Alibaba.com, the world's number one online marketplace for international trade, was today chosen as the winner of the Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award (WIBTA) 2007 for the Asia-Pacific region at a ceremony in Berlin, Germany.
The Jury Council was impressed with Alibaba’s strong growth and market leadership position in e-commerce. It also cited Alibaba’s role in facilitating an entirely new way of conducting global trade as the reason for the Jury Council’s unanimous decision. By acting as an international online marketplace, Alibaba.com allows small and medium-sized companies to reach a far wider market and helps them compete directly with large corporations.
WIBTA rewards IT excellence and innovations that have a long lasting impact on the industry and on society as a whole. Past winners include Samsung Electronics and Amazon.com.
"We continuously listen to our members and develop new tools and features that make their lives easier," said David Wei, CEO of Alibaba.com. "Our philosophy is that IT should serve our members, not the other way around. By making global trade accessible to companies of all sizes, Alibaba.com is making a real difference to SMEs around the world."
The WIBTA awards are a combined effort of the Wharton Business School, the leading academic business institution, and Infosys Technologies Ltd, the global software and IT consulting company. This year, the Jury Council who selected Alibaba.com comprised Internet guru Esther Dyson, Infosys founder Narayana R N Murthy, Wharton Management Professor Harbir Singh, IT champion David Boyles, and UK business luminary Sir Paul Judge.
From left to right :
Kris Gopalakrishnan, CEO of Infosys
Abir Oreibi, Director of Alibaba.com, Europe and the Middle East
Esther Dyson, Internet guru and one of the judges at the award ceremony in Berlin.
