Alibaba vs Wipro: Founders, CEOs and History

Company facts

Founders

CEOs and their tenures

Timeline: Alibaba and Wipro side by side

1. 1945Wipro

   Incorporated as Western India Vegetable Products

   Mohamed Hasham Premji sets up a vegetable oil business in Amalner, Maharashtra.

2. 1966Wipro

   Azim Premji takes over

   After his father's death, 21-year-old Azim Premji leaves Stanford to run the company.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 2000Wipro

   NYSE listing

   Wipro lists American Depositary Shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker WIT.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 2007Wipro

   Acquired Infocrossing

   Wipro Limited acquired Infocrossing for $600 million.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 2013Wipro

    Non-IT businesses demerged

    Consumer care, lighting, and infrastructure engineering businesses move to the unlisted Wipro Enterprises.

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. 2019Wipro

    Rishad Premji becomes Executive Chairman

    Azim Premji retires from the executive role and his son Rishad Premji takes over as chairman.

17. 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.

18. 2021Wipro

    Capco acquisition completed

    Wipro completes its $1.45 billion acquisition of financial services consultancy Capco.

19. 2022Wipro

    Acquired Rizing

    Wipro Limited acquired Rizing for $540 million.

20. 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…

21. 2024Wipro

    Srini Pallia named CEO

    Srini Pallia succeeds Thierry Delaporte as CEO and Managing Director in April 2024.

22. 2026Wipro

    Rs 150 billion buyback approved

    Alongside FY2026 results in April 2026, the board approves a Rs 150 billion share buyback.

Acquisitions

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