2014-09-19T120001Z_299595163_GM1EA9J1JFB02_RTRMADP_3_ALIBABA-IPO
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. founder Jack Ma (C) gestures in front of the New York Stock Exchange before his company's initial public offering under the ticker "BABA" in New York, Sept.19, 2014. The Chinese e-commerce giant can now claim the world's largest-ever IPO. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

The initial public offering of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., a once-obscure Chinese e-commerce site turned into global rival of Amazon.com Inc. and eBay Inc., rocketed into financial history Friday on the New York Stock Exchange as the largest IPO in history.

Here are seven things to know about the Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) IPO:

1. Jack Ma is expected to gross at least $867 million in the IPO.

2. Only 320 million shares, or 13 percent of the company's capital, are being offered in the IPO.

3. The largest shareholder of the Chinese e-commerce giant is Japan's SoftBank Corp. with a 32 percent stake, and the second-largest shareholder is Yahoo Inc.

4. Moments after trading began, shares shot up to more than $99, which was 45 percent above the initially designated price of $68 and up 6.8 percent from the price of the first actual transaction.

5. The IPO, which could gross $21.8 billion, is expected to be the largest ever, bypassing the $22.1 billion of Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. in 2010.

6. More than 1,700 financial firms placed orders for Alibaba shares ahead of Friday's IPO.

7. Shares began trading at 11:53 a.m. EDT at $92.70.

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