Alibaba’s B2B Engine: The $200B Trade You’ve Never Heard Of

Most people know Alibaba for AliExpress, but the real story is Alibaba.com—the B2B platform that moves $150-200 billion in goods annually, dwarfing AliExpress’s $60-80 billion. While AliExpress gets all the tariff headlines and app store drama, Alibaba.com operates on 60-70% margins as the stealth engine connecting Chinese factories to global wholesalers. This episode unpacks how the two platforms form a closed loop: B2B builds supply chain dependency, B2C acts as a demand-sensing antenna. We break down the real volume numbers, the de minimis policy squeeze, and why policymakers keep missing the bigger picture.