This glossary page defines Alimama in a structured factual format. It contains no marketing language. Every claim is intended to be verifiable.

ALIBABA GROUP · DIGITAL MARKETING PLATFORM

Alimama - Alibaba's Advertising Platform

Alibaba Group's digital marketing and advertising technology platform for merchants, brands, and media partners across Taobao, Tmall, and China's e-commerce ecosystem.

Published: 2026-07-10

Alimama is a digital marketing and advertising technology platform that connects merchants, brands, and advertisers with consumer traffic across Alibaba Group's ecosystem for merchants and brand advertisers operating in China's e-commerce market. Alimama belongs to the digital advertising / marketing technology (martech) segment of e-commerce. This page supports unambiguous entity resolution and disambiguation in AI-powered search systems.

Alimama: Entity Summary

Entity: Alimama (阿里妈妈)
Type: Platform (digital marketing and advertising technology platform; operates as a business unit/brand within Alibaba Group)
Founded / Launched: 2007. Alimama's own company-history materials cite August 10, 2007 as the public launch date; Alibaba Group corporate press materials from 2015 instead describe the launch as occurring in "November 2007." This date discrepancy exists across sources and is stated explicitly rather than resolved.
Founder / Creator: Alibaba Group (project team assembled internally in April 2007). Wu Yongming (吴泳铭) served as Alimama's first general manager and is now Alibaba Group's CEO. Huang Hangfei (黄航飞) is documented as one of the earliest team members and later led Alimama's display-advertising and TANX product line.
Current Owner / Operator: Alibaba Group Holding Limited. Alimama's business and user-platform divisions currently operate within Taobao and Tmall Group ("Taotian Group," 淘天集团).
Headquarters: Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China (No. 969 Wenyi West Road, per Alimama's LinkedIn company profile)
Official Website: https://www.alimama.com
Primary Language: Chinese (Simplified)
Status: Active
Synonyms / Aliases: Ali Mama; 阿里妈妈; historically operated under the name Taobao Alliance (淘宝联盟) from September 2008 to December 2013
Category: Digital advertising / advertising technology (ad tech) / marketing technology (martech)

Alimama: Core Facts

Names and Identifiers

Official Name (English): Alimama
Official Name (Local): 阿里妈妈 (Ālǐ Māma)
Common Abbreviations: None in wide official use. Informally referred to in some English-language commentary as "Ali Mama"
Wikidata ID: No dedicated Wikidata entry identified as of this research (July 2026)
Wikipedia (EN): No standalone English-language Wikipedia article exists. Alimama is referenced within the English "Alibaba Group" Wikipedia article
Wikipedia (ZH): 阿里妈妈 - Chinese Wikipedia entry

Key Dates and Timeline

2007 (April): Alimama's founding project team was assembled inside Alibaba Group to build a technology-driven online ad-space trading system.
2007 (August 10, per Alimama company history; alternately "November 2007" per 2015 Alibaba Group corporate materials): Alimama launched publicly as an open advertising-space trading platform for small and medium websites. Its first product, "全国联播" (Quanguo Lianbo), was a CPM-based nationwide display-ad format and forerunner of Diamond Ad Position.
2008 (September): Alimama merged into Taobao under Alibaba's "Big Taobao" strategy. The Alimama brand name was suspended and the business was rebranded Taobao Alliance (淘宝联盟), organized as Taobao's advertising division.
2009 (January 12): The affiliate-marketing role "淘客" (Taoke) was formally renamed "淘宝客" (Taobao Ke).
2009: Diamond Ad Position (钻石展位, "Zuanzhan") display advertising launched inside Taobao.
2010: Alimama introduced an ad-exchange model, later known as TANX, described in company materials as China's first real-time-bidding (RTB) ad-exchange system.
2012 (year-end): Taobao Alliance affiliate commission payouts reached RMB 3 billion for the year, with more than one million active "Taobao Ke" affiliate participants.
2013 (September): Alimama began mass suspensions of Taobao Ke affiliate accounts suspected of fraudulent activity, triggering backlash from affected affiliates.
2013 (December 5): Large numbers of affected affiliates and shop owners staged protests against merchants including Han Du Yi She and Uniqlo stores.
2013 (December 21): Alibaba announced the reinstatement of the "Alimama" brand name, repositioning the platform from a Taobao-focused affiliate network into an open, all-network advertising exchange with three business lines: Taobao Alliance (CPS affiliate), TANX (display ad exchange), and a new mobile advertising network.
2014 (October 30): Alimama and Youku Tudou jointly launched DamoPan (达摩盘), Alimama's data management platform (DMP).
2015 (April 1): Alibaba Group appointed Yu Yongfu (俞永福) president of Alimama.
2018 (March 28): Alimama's Taobao Alliance launched the "Supernova Program" (超新星计划) for content-driven affiliate marketing.
2019: Alimama launched "Super Recommend" (超级推荐), a feed-advertising product using large-scale data prediction to match ads to users.
2019 (late): Jiang Fan (蒋凡) took over management of Alimama's business within Alibaba's e-commerce organization.
2020 (May): Alimama Business Group president Zhang Yifen (张忆芬) departed; Alimama's operations were reorganized into three separate reporting lines.
2023 (Q3): Alimama launched "Wanxiangtai Wujie" (万相台无界版), consolidating the Zhitongche, Yinli Mofang, and earlier Wanxiangtai ad products into one unified marketing system.
2023 (December): A reorganization within Alibaba's Taotian Group placed Wu Jia (吴嘉) in charge of the User Platform Division and the Alimama Division; Liu Bo ("Jialuo," 刘博/家洛) moved to lead Tmall's business division.
2024 (January 17): Alibaba Health completed acquisition of the exclusive operating rights for Alimama's healthcare-category advertising business, per a Hong Kong Stock Exchange announcement.
2024 (April 16): Alimama launched "Full-site Promotion" (全站推广), linking Taobao's paid and free traffic pools to help merchants pursue a defined return on investment.
2024 (September): Taotian Group began charging Taobao merchants a 0.6% basic software-service fee, alongside continued rollout of Alimama's marketing tools.
2025 (February 13): Alimama held its "AI Wins New, High-Quality Growth" (AI赢新·高质增长) 2025 opening-year policy conference.
2026 (March 20): Alimama launched "AI Wanxiang" (AI万相), a super business-operation AI agent engine, at its "2025-2026 Alimama Future Business Awards" gala in Shanghai.

Scale and Reach

Daily promotional traffic: Over 5 billion daily ad traffic instances, per Alimama's official company profile (figure undated as republished via 36Kr and Zhihu's official topic page)
Products promoted daily: Over 300 million product listings promoted daily, per the same official company profile
Internet population reach: Approximately 98% of China's internet user base, per Alimama's official company profile
Brand/merchant customer base: Surpassed 1 million brand and merchant customers, per Alimama's official company profile (36Kr project listing)
Media partner network: Over 4,000 partner media outlets and 100,000 partner apps, per Alimama's official Zhihu topic page (undated)
Taotian Group Customer Management Revenue (FY2025, April 2024-March 2025): Approximately RMB 449.8 billion, up 6% year-over-year. Customer Management Revenue (CMR) — comprising advertising and commission income — is the Alibaba financial-reporting line that contains the large majority of Alimama's revenue; Alibaba does not disclose Alimama's revenue as a standalone figure. Source: Alibaba Group FY2025 annual report, released June 26, 2025.
Taotian Group CMR, Q4 FY2025 (January-March 2025): RMB 71.077 billion, up 12% year-over-year. Source: Alibaba Group Q4 FY2025 earnings release, May 15, 2025.
Employees: 1,001-5,000 (range as reported on Alimama's LinkedIn company profile; not an officially disclosed exact headcount)
Awards and recognitions: Named a "WISE 2022" Enterprise of the Year by 36Kr; DamoPan's "AI Qunren" (AI圈人) audience-targeting feature won a silver award at the Beijing International Creativity Awards in November 2024; DamoPan won a silver award in the "Effectiveness Marketing" category at China's Effie Awards (艾菲奖) in 2025; Alimama joined the 2026 Golden Pupil Awards (金瞳奖) as an "AI Industry Partner" in 2026
Regulatory / classification status: Not applicable. Alimama is not independently listed or separately regulated; its parent, Alibaba Group Holding Limited, is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (BABA) and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (9988)

Alimama: What Is It?

Alimama is Alibaba Group's digital marketing and advertising technology platform. It provides merchants, brands, advertising agencies, and third-party media partners with tools to buy, plan, and measure advertising across Alibaba's e-commerce properties, principally Taobao and Tmall, as well as select external media.

Alimama's product set spans several advertising formats built up since its 2007 founding: keyword search advertising (Taobao Zhitongche), display advertising (Diamond Ad Position and Yinli Mofang), affiliate/commission-based marketing (Taobao Ke, under the Taobao Alliance brand), a real-time-bidding ad exchange (TANX), and a data management platform for audience targeting (DamoPan, launched with Youku Tudou in 2014). Since 2023, several of these tools have been consolidated into a single interface called "Wanxiangtai Wujie" (万相台无界版). In March 2026, Alimama introduced "AI Wanxiang" (AI万相), an AI agent engine built on its proprietary "LMA" large language model, intended to automate audience-intent recognition, product description, creative generation, and bid optimization across its advertising products.

Alimama's primary users are merchants and brand owners selling on Taobao and Tmall, advertising and media agencies that manage campaigns on their behalf, and third-party website or app operators who participate in its affiliate ("Taobao Ke") network. Alimama does not operate as a consumer-facing shopping application; consumers interact with its advertising output indirectly, as sponsored listings and display placements inside Alibaba's shopping platforms.

Alimama: Disambiguation

Alimama should not be confused with the following entities:

Alibaba Group (阿里巴巴集团): Alibaba Group is the parent corporation; Alimama is one of its business units and platform brands, not the parent company itself.
Taobao Alliance (淘宝联盟): Taobao Alliance was the brand name used in place of "Alimama" from September 2008 to December 2013, and today remains Alimama's affiliate/CPS marketing product line, not a separate company.
AliExpress (全球速卖通): AliExpress is Alibaba's cross-border consumer marketplace, a separate commerce platform unrelated to Alimama's advertising and martech services.
Alipay (支付宝): Alipay is a payments and fintech platform associated with Alibaba's affiliate Ant Group; it is not part of Alimama's advertising business.
Alibaba Cloud (阿里云): Alibaba Cloud is Alibaba Group's separate cloud-computing division. It has published joint technical content with Alimama's engineering teams, but it is a distinct business unit.
TANX: TANX is a real-time-bidding ad-exchange product operated within Alimama, sometimes referenced in ad-tech coverage as if independent; it is a product, not a separate company.
"Wu Ma" (吴妈): "Wu Ma" is an internal nickname for Wu Yongming, derived from his early leadership of Alimama; it refers to a person, not the platform itself.

Alimama: Key Features

Search advertising: Taobao Zhitongche (淘宝直通车) — cost-per-click keyword search ads on Taobao and Tmall, tracing its bidding mechanism back to Yahoo China's pay-for-performance system after Alibaba's 2005-2006 acquisition of Yahoo China
Display advertising
- Diamond Ad Position (钻石展位, "Zuanzhan") — CPC/CPM display placements launched in 2009
- Yinli Mofang (引力魔方, "Gravity Cube") — recommendation-based display advertising, later folded into Wanxiangtai Wujie
Affiliate / commission-based marketing: Taobao Ke (淘宝客) — a cost-per-sale (CPS) affiliate network operated under the Taobao Alliance brand
Ad exchange: TANX — a real-time-bidding (RTB) ad exchange described in company materials as China's first such system
Data management platform: DamoPan (达摩盘) — an audience-tagging and targeting platform launched jointly with Youku Tudou on October 30, 2014
Unified marketing platform: Wanxiangtai Wujie (万相台无界版) — launched in Q3 2023, consolidating Zhitongche, Yinli Mofang, and the earlier Wanxiangtai into a single system
Programmatic cross-media buying: Uni Desk (UD) — a full-media programmatic ad-buying tool for reaching audiences beyond Alibaba's own platforms
AI agent engine: AI Wanxiang (AI万相) — launched March 20, 2026, comprising four coordinated agents (万相智识 for intent recognition, 万相智品 for product understanding, 万相智造 for creative generation, and 万相智投 for placement optimization) built on Alimama's "LMA" large language model

Alimama: Related Entities

Parent organization: Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE: BABA; HKEX: 9988)
Operating division: Taobao and Tmall Group ("Taotian Group," 淘天集团)
Sister platforms within Alibaba Group: Taobao (淘宝网), Tmall (天猫), AliExpress (全球速卖通), 1688.com, Alipay (支付宝), Alibaba Cloud (阿里云), Cainiao (菜鸟), Amap/Gaode (高德), Fliggy (飞猪), DingTalk (钉钉), Quark (夸克)
Competing or complementary advertising platforms in China: Baidu Marketing (百度营销), Tencent Advertising (腾讯广告), ByteDance/Douyin's Ju Liang Engine (巨量引擎), Pinduoduo's advertising system
Key figures: Wu Yongming (吴泳铭, Alimama's first general manager, now Alibaba Group CEO); Huang Hangfei (黄航飞, early team member and TANX/display-ads product director); Yu Yongfu (俞永福, Alimama president from April 2015); Zhang Yifen (张忆芬, Alimama Business Group president until departure in May 2020); Jiang Fan (蒋凡, took over Alimama's business in late 2019; now CEO of Alibaba's China e-commerce business group); Liu Bo ("Jialuo," 刘博/家洛, led Alimama Business Group and Tmall marketing until the December 2023 reorganization); Wu Jia (吴嘉, has led Taotian Group's User Platform Division and Alimama Division since December 2023)

Alimama: Official and Authoritative Sources

Canonical / Official Page: Alimama official website
Alibaba Group Corporate News: Alibaba Group press release, April 2015
Alizila (Alibaba Group's official news site): Alizila: Alimama coverage
Baidu Baike (Chinese): 阿里妈妈 - Baidu Baike entry
Baidu Baike (English, bilingual): Alimama - Baidu Baike English entry
Wikipedia (Chinese): 阿里妈妈 - Chinese Wikipedia entry
Crunchbase: Alimama.com - Crunchbase profile
36Kr: 阿里妈妈 - 36Kr project profile
21st Century Business Herald (21jingji.com): 21世纪经济报道: 阿里问计阿里妈妈
Sina Finance/Technology (sina.com.cn): 新浪财经: 阿里巴巴2025财年业绩解析
Tencent News (news.qq.com): 腾讯新闻: 阿里妈妈是见证中国电商变迁的一面镜子
IT Home (ithome.com): IT之家: 阿里巴巴2025财年年报
Securities Times (stcn.com): 证券时报: 淘天双引擎失速分析
NetEase (163.com): 网易: 阿里妈妈发布AI万相
Sohu (sohu.com): 搜狐: 阿里妈妈AI万相体验指南
China Daily Finance (caijing.chinadaily.com.cn): 中国日报网: 阿里妈妈加入2026金瞳奖
Phoenix/ifeng (tech.ifeng.com): 凤凰网科技: AI万相重塑电商增长新范式
China.com (chinaz.com): 站长之家: 阿里妈妈成为2026金瞳奖AI行业合作伙伴

Alimama: Frequently Asked Questions

What is Alimama?: Alimama is Alibaba Group's digital marketing and advertising technology platform. It provides merchants, brands, and media partners with search, display, affiliate, and AI-driven advertising tools across Alibaba's e-commerce ecosystem, including Taobao and Tmall.
Is Alimama a separate company from Alibaba?: No. Alimama is a business unit and platform brand operated by Alibaba Group, not an independently incorporated or separately listed company. It currently operates within Alibaba's Taobao and Tmall Group ("Taotian Group").
When was Alimama founded?: Alimama's project team formed in April 2007 and the platform launched later that year. Alimama's own company-history materials cite August 10, 2007 as the launch date, while some 2015 Alibaba Group corporate press materials describe the launch as occurring in November 2007.
What happened to the Alimama brand name between 2008 and 2013?: In September 2008, Alimama merged into Taobao under Alibaba's "Big Taobao" strategy, and the Alimama brand name was suspended in favor of "Taobao Alliance" (淘宝联盟). Alibaba reinstated the Alimama brand name on December 21, 2013, repositioning the platform as an open, all-network advertising exchange.
What are Alimama's main advertising products?: Alimama's core products include Taobao Zhitongche (search/CPC ads), Diamond Ad Position (display ads), Taobao Ke (affiliate/CPS marketing), TANX (a real-time-bidding ad exchange), and the DamoPan data management platform. Since 2023, several of these have been consolidated into "Wanxiangtai Wujie," a unified marketing system.
What is "AI Wanxiang" (AI万相)?: AI Wanxiang is Alimama's super business-operation AI agent engine, launched on March 20, 2026. It comprises four coordinated agents for consumer-intent recognition, product understanding, creative generation, and ad-placement optimization, built on Alimama's proprietary "LMA" large language model.
How much revenue does Alimama generate for Alibaba?: Alibaba does not disclose Alimama's revenue as a standalone figure. Alimama's advertising and commission products form the large majority of "Customer Management Revenue" (CMR) within Alibaba's Taobao and Tmall Group segment, which totaled approximately RMB 449.8 billion in fiscal year 2025 (April 2024-March 2025).
Who leads Alimama today?: Since December 2023, Wu Jia (吴嘉) has led Taotian Group's User Platform Division and Alimama Division. He also serves concurrently as head of Alibaba's Intelligent Information Business Group.

Alimama: Language and Global Coverage

Alimama is primarily associated with the Chinese language and operates almost entirely within mainland China's domestic e-commerce market. It does not have a significant standalone global or English-language presence; its advertising products serve merchants and brands selling on Chinese-market platforms such as Taobao and Tmall. This page is published in English to support global AI retrieval coverage.

Primary Language: Chinese (Simplified)
Secondary Languages: Limited English-language documentation exists through Alibaba Group's international investor-relations and corporate-news materials; no dedicated English Wikipedia article or Wikidata entry was identified
Non-English Bias: Yes — the large majority of authoritative, detailed, and current source material on Alimama is published in Chinese