Alibaba files to go public in U.S., IPO could be biggest ever

It's history in the making... in the stock listings world-- Alibaba, one of the world's fastest-growing Internet companies, has officially filed its initial public offering in the U.S. and it could be one of the biggest ever. Connie Lee reports. Alibaba--- is not only the biggest online marketplace in China... according to some reports, it's the biggest online marketplace in the world. And now... the e-commerce giant has its eyes on the U.S., officially filing to launch an initial public offering there. In its registration statement... the Chinese company said it plans to raise a billion U.S. dollars, but analysts say the amount is likely to go much higher. Some expect its IPO to surpass that of Facebook, which raised 16-point-4 billion dollars in 2012... while others expect Alibaba's offering to be as big as credit card company Visa,... which raised nearly 20-billion dollars in 2008. If the total surpasses that amount, Alibaba's IPO could become one of the largest ever in the U.S. Based on the average estimate from a dozen analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News, Alibaba is valued at 168-billion U.S. dollars. So what exactly is Alibaba? Simply put... the online marketplace is described as a mixture of Amazon, eBay and PayPal... but with sales that trumpet those three online sites. Alibaba accounts for about 80 percent of online shopping in China and although it's widely known there and among global tech industry watchers... Alibaba is much lesser known in the West. The tech giant is set to make its debut either on the New York Stock Exchange or the Nasdaq... sometime this summer. It was in 1999 when the company was founded, in eastern China... by 49-year-old Jack Ma-- he who was worth four billion U.S. dollars last year. Connie Lee, Arirang News.