Imagine a website where you can buy not only products like clothing and electronics but also discount tickets for the Empire State building and services like house cleaning and proofreading. And like other major online retailers, you can expect cheap delivery within two days, even on weekends.

Are you tempted to log on and start shopping?

That’s what Alibaba founder and Chairman Jack Ma (BABA) wants you to do. And he’s already getting people to do it. In the 12 months ending in March, Alibaba’s China retail marketplaces reached 454 million active buyers and saw $547 billion in gross merchandise volume. Alibaba recognized $23 billion in revenue during that period.

This week, the Chinese e-commerce giant’s stock soared by more than 10% after it forecast sales growth of 45% to 49% for the current fiscal year.

In a speech to investors this week, Ma set the goal for Alibaba: to become the fifth-largest “economy” in the world by 2036 by serving 2 billion consumers around the world.

Though often compared to Amazon (AMZN), Alibaba is not quite the Chinese equivalent of the US online giant, according to Ma.

“The difference between Amazon and us, is Amazon is more like an empire — everything they control themselves, buy and sell,” Ma said at this year’s Davos Forum. “Our philosophy is that we want to be an ecosystem. With our technology, our innovation, our partners — 10 million small business sellers — they can compete with Microsoft and IBM.”

Different business models

While they’re the dominant e-commerce players in two big economies, Alibaba and Amazon have different business models. Amazon, which has more than 70 fulfillment centers, uses a mix of services like UPS and FedEx along with the US Postal Service, to deliver packages to your door. (Though it has also been building its own delivery operation.)

Alibaba’s biggest retailing website, Taobao, works differently from Amazon. It has no warehouses, for example. It also consists only of direct sales from manufacturers to consumers, whereas Amazon features a mix of products it sells directly and products from third-party sellers.

Taobao’s goods are delivered by express courier companies, which handle logistics. China’s online retail boom is driving a surge in the country’s domestic delivery industry, which is a win for Alibaba. Low labor costs, fierce market competition and the huge scale help keep shipping costs low.

“The shipping price is almost always cheaper than in the US. It’s a major perk of using Taobao,” said Ethan Roberson, a North Carolinian who currently studies in China.