China's business-to-business e-commerce company Alibaba is considering expanding its business globally and offering its services to small- and medium-sized companies outside China, FT.com reports.

Alibaba has also announced plans to move its European headquarters from Geneva to London in January 2009 and add more 4,000 employees throughout the year to the existing 12,000, according to the same source.

Alibaba Group, the parent company of Alibaba.com, reported USD 321 million in revenues during the first nine months of 2008. Alibaba connects buyers and suppliers via three marketplaces: an English-language marketplace (alibaba.com) for global importers and exporters, a Chinese-language marketplace (alibaba.com.cn) for e-commerce in China, and via Japanese-language marketplace (alibaba.co.jp) enabling trade to and from Japan.

 The website ranks 197th in Alexa’s ranking of most visited websites.