China's Alibaba Group said on Friday it will launch an international business-to-business (B2B) platform in the United States by the end of the year, as the company seeks to globalize its brand.

Alibaba Group's subsidiary Alibaba.com's B2B platform connects millions of registered small-business buyers and sellers of Chinese products online.

Jack Ma, chief executive of Alibaba Group, discussed the new platform -- Ali Express (http://wholesale.alibaba.com) -- at a business conference in Hangzhou.

Alibaba Group is also the parent of Taobao, China's largest online auction site, and Alipay, an online payment service provider.

The new platform is currently in a testing phase, said an Alibaba spokeswoman, declining to give more details.

Alibaba.com opened its European headquarters earlier this month and recently launched a $30 million global advertising campaign.

The firm has also said it is considering setting up a joint venture company in India to manage its B2B platform.

U.S. search engine Yahoo holds about 40 percent of Alibaba Group and has an investment of more than 1 percent in the listed firm.

(Reporting by Melanie Lee; Editing by Rupert Winchester)

China India Launch Yahoo