资料：2014 has been a landmark year for Alibaba. Just last week, the Chinese e-commerce juggernaut set a world-record selling US$9.3 Billion worth of goods in 24 hours on Singles Day. A few months back, Alibaba claimed the title of the world's biggest IPO, raising US$25 Billion on the NYSE. Things will only get bigger for Alibaba.

On the back of the historic signing of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement yesterday, Alibaba announced in Melbourne their continued commitment to bringing Australian products, brands and businesses closer to China's online consumers via it's Alipay payment platform and Taobao Marketplace.

Alipay is the largest online payment service provider in China. With more than 800 million Chinese accounts, Alipay is already the biggest mobile payment processor in the world. It clears 80 million transactions per day, including 45 million transactions through it's Alipay Wallet mobile app and processed US$780 billion worth of transactions in the year ended June 30. Alipay is one of six financial services entities that will fall under the umbrella of Ant Financial Serviced Group, a rebranding of Alipay Financial Services. There are plans to take this money making machine public too.

Alipay Australia has been established as a local entity that will work with its joint venture partner, pay bang to help Australian businesses and merchants access Alipay's cross-border payment solutions. Alipay has also been working with Australia Post to sell, distribute and promote the Alipay Purchase Card across 4,400 retail outlets for Australian shoppers to use on the Tmall.com and Taobao Marketplace platforms.

Alipay's extension into Australia, follows its move into the U.S with the launch of its ePay payment program, which handles everything from payment processing and currency translation for U.S. retailers.

What is this article mainly about?

• A.Alibaba’s new business strategy
• B.Alibaba’s Alipay and Taobao marketplace expand into Australia
• C.Alibaba’s acquisition of Australian local companies
• D.The introduction of Alibaba