Alibaba vs TotalEnergies: Founders, CEOs and History

Company facts

Founders

CEOs and their tenures

Timeline: Alibaba and TotalEnergies side by side

1. 1924TotalEnergies

   Compagnie Francaise des Petroles founded

   The French state-backed oil company was created to secure access to petroleum resources and became the predecessor of TotalEnergies.

2. 1954TotalEnergies

   Total Brand Created

   The company created the Total brand in 1954 to build a retail distribution network.

3. 1995TotalEnergies

   Thierry Desmarest becomes CEO

   Thierry Desmarest became CEO of TotalEnergies in 1995. Led Total from 1995 to 2007 and engineered the Petrofina and Elf Aquitaine combinations; remained Chairman until 2010.

4. 1999Alibaba

   Alibaba.com Launched

   Jack Ma and 17 co-founders launch Alibaba.com from a Hangzhou apartment with $60,000 in pooled savings, creating a B2B online marketplace connecting Chinese manufacturers with international buyers.

5. 1999Alibaba

   First Major Investment from SoftBank

   Masayoshi Son invests $20 million in Alibaba in a meeting reportedly lasting five minutes, alongside $5 million from Goldman Sachs, providing survival capital through the imminent dot-com crash.

6. 1999TotalEnergies

   Petrofina acquired; Elf Aquitaine follows in 2000

   Total combined with Belgium's Petrofina in 1999 and Elf Aquitaine in 2000, operating as TotalFinaElf before reverting to Total in 2003.

7. 2000TotalEnergies

   Elf Aquitaine Acquired

   Total acquired Elf Aquitaine in 2000, forming TotalFinaElf.

8. 2001Alibaba

   Gold Supplier Program Launch

   Alibaba launches the Gold Supplier verified membership program at $3,000 per year, generating approximately $10 million in first-year revenue and proving the B2B marketplace model's commercial viability.

9. 2003Alibaba

   Taobao Launches to Challenge eBay

   Alibaba secretly develops and launches Taobao, a consumer-to-consumer marketplace offered free to both buyers and sellers, directly targeting eBay's Chinese market position. Within three years, Taobao surpasses eBay's Chinese market share.

10. 2004Alibaba

    Alipay Escrow Service Created

    Alibaba creates Alipay as a payment escrow solution for Taobao transactions, holding buyer funds until delivery confirmation before releasing payment to sellers solving the trust barrier that was limiting online commerce adoption.

11. 2007TotalEnergies

    Christophe de Margerie becomes CEO

    Christophe de Margerie became CEO of TotalEnergies in 2007. CEO from 2007 and Chairman from 2010 until his death in a plane accident at Moscow's Vnukovo airport in October 2014.

12. 2008Alibaba

    Tmall (Taobao Mall) Launch

    Alibaba launches a premium B2C marketplace initially called Taobao Mall (later rebranded Tmall), allowing established brands to operate official storefronts with higher trust credentials and enabling Alibaba to serve the premium consumer segment.

13. 2009Alibaba

    Alibaba Cloud Founded

    Alibaba launches Alibaba Cloud (Aliyun) as a cloud computing business, a decade ahead of many enterprise adoption cycles, positioning it to become Asia Pacific's dominant cloud provider.

14. 2011Alibaba

    First Singles' Day Shopping Festival

    Alibaba transforms the informal 'Singles' Day' celebration on November 11 into a promotional shopping event on Taobao and Tmall, generating ~$130 million (936 million yuan) in sales a figure that would grow more than 100-fold in subsequent years.

15. 2011TotalEnergies

    Acquired SunPower (majority stake)

    TotalEnergies acquired SunPower (majority stake).

16. 2014Alibaba

    Record-Breaking NYSE IPO

    Alibaba completes its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange on September 19, 2014, raising $25 billion the largest IPO in US stock market history at that time at a valuation of approximately $168 billion.

17. 2018TotalEnergies

    Direct Energie acquired

    Total bought French power and gas retailer Direct Energie, the base of its European retail electricity business.

18. 2019Alibaba

    Dual Listing on Hong Kong Stock Exchange

    Alibaba completes a secondary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, raising an additional $13 billion and broadening its investor base among Asian institutional and retail investors, reducing dependence on US capital markets.

19. 2021Alibaba

    Record Antitrust Fine

    Chinese regulators impose a 18.23 billion yuan ($2.8 billion USD) antitrust fine on Alibaba following a months-long investigation into its 'choose one from two' exclusivity practices at the time, the largest antitrust fine in Chinese regulatory history.

20. 2021TotalEnergies

    Total becomes TotalEnergies

    The company changed its name to TotalEnergies to reflect a broader multi-energy strategy spanning oil, gas, electricity, renewables, and low-carbon energy.

21. 2023Alibaba

    Six-Business-Unit Restructuring Announced

    Alibaba announces its most significant organizational restructuring, dividing the company into six independent business units each with its own CEO and board: Taobao Tmall Group, Cloud Intelligence Group, Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group, Cainiao S…

22. 2025TotalEnergies

    2025 results

    Revenues from sales of $182.344 billion, adjusted net income of $15.6 billion (down 15%), IFRS net income of $13.127 billion and a €3.40 dividend.

23. 2026TotalEnergies

    Mozambique LNG full restart

    On January 29, 2026, Patrick Pouyanné and President Daniel Chapo announced the full restart of the roughly $20 billion Mozambique LNG project after force majeure was lifted in November 2025.

24. 2026TotalEnergies

    Q2 2026 results

    Adjusted net income of $6.0 billion and cash flow of $9.8 billion in the second quarter as higher oil prices tied to the Middle East conflict lifted earnings.

Acquisitions

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