“The Communists Just Beat Us at Capitalism”? The “Internationalization” of Alibaba

• In Event: Power, Resistance, Professonalism, and Internationalization in China's Media Industries

Abstract

This paper studies the “internationalization” of Alibaba as a case to illuminate the complex state-capital interactions that have structured the development of China’s web industry. Drawing on the digital capitalism literature, it takes a comprehensive approach to conceptualize the “internationalization” of Chinese web companies, which includes not only physical expansion beyond home base, but also various complex forms of interactions with transnational capital within the Chinese border. By delineating, documenting and assessing Alibaba’s evolution in the past 15 years, it argues that instead of being confined to a repressive inward-looking national “intranet,” China in fact has actively engaged with the global Internet since the early development of its web economy – and is now increasingly projecting power outward. As a China-based Internet company enmeshed deeply in global digital capitalism, Alibaba’s intricate global trajectory embodies a battlefield where the state and transnational capital have wrestled for the mastery of China’s digital economy.

Author

• Hong Shen, Carnegie Mellon University