Alibaba Boosts IPO Price Range; To Trade at $66 to $68

The Alibaba Group, the Chinese online business giant, announced in a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Monday that it had raised the price range of its Initial Public Offering (IPO) to $66 - $68.

The announcement comes amid great demand for Alibaba's shares and the company could end up raising more than $25 billion on its first trading day, making it the biggest IPO in the history of mankind.

Alibaba's shares are expected to start trading on the New York Stock Exchange Sept. 19.  The company initially planned on raising $21.1 billion in its initial offering but according to several reports, its shares have been oversubscribed already.

Alibaba was to launch the IPO in August but pushed the date back to September because some investors were on a vacation and the company also needed further regulatory approval from the U.S. But experts believe the extension was for the better.

"There shouldn't be any obstacles for proceeding with the IPO," Li Muzhi, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Arete Research Service LLP told Bloomberg.

 "This just gives them a bit more time."

Alibaba first filed for an IPO in May and announced that it expects to raise about $1 billion on its first trading day.

Investors are eagerly waiting for the IPO because Alibaba holds 80 percent of the e-commerce market share in China. By investing in the shares, businessmen hope to tap the large e-business sector of China. The high demand for its shares is also partly because investors think that the shares are being offered at a discount.

Alibaba is reportedly tapping all the Chinese outside the homeland to speed up its global expansion.

"If Alibaba's strategy is to follow the Chinese diaspora, it's a smart strategy because you don't have to build a brand from scratch," Niraj Dawar, a professor of marketing at the Ivey Business School in Canada, told The Salt Lake Tribune.

"To be a global player they eventually have to serve markets that are non-Chinese," Dawar added.

Many have been comparing Alibaba to Amazon, but CNN Money points out that the two companies are disparate. Alibaba does not own the goods it lists on its website - unlike Amazon.

"Amazon and eBay are e-commerce companies, and Alibaba is not an e-commerce company," Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma was quoted by the website. "Alibaba helps others to do e-commerce. We do not sell things."