Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is set to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.

Raising over 20 billion U.S. dollars, the initial public offering is going to be the largest of any company on the American capital market.

But as investors and observers have noted, the significance of the IPO goes far beyond being the biggest. What Alibaba, a tech company founded only 15 years ago, has reflected is the rising power of Chinese business on the world stage.

For decades, China has been viewed as the world's primary production hub that enjoys abundant supply of cheap labor. As it integrates deeper into the global economy, China has seen its trade flourish and foreign exchange reserves swell, but the competition in the global value chain is still very much behind its more privileged peers in the West.

However, a new trend in commerce is leveling the playing field. The rising usage of the Internet and more lately, the smartphones, has opened up new battlefields for Chinese entrepreneurs. With better local knowledge and public trust, some ambitious young Chinese companies have managed to outshine their American counterparts expanding into China.

That was how Alibaba beat its rivals, eBay and Amazon, back in the 2000s. And how other tech firms such as Baidu, Tencent, JD, Sina, just to name a few, quickly dominated Chinese market and grew into multi-billion behemoths in just over a decade.

The blossoming Internet industry is a good evidence of China's business power, which follows its economic power as the world's second largest economy just after the United States. Their success stories have not only become household in China, but also been positively accepted by many of the world's canniest investors on the Wall Street.

Now, about a third of the top 20 Internet companies with the highest market value are based in China. From late 2013, more than a dozen Chinese tech firms went public in the United States, and more are planning for an IPO.

As the world's most populous country shifts from an investment-led to consumption-led growth model, the tech companies capitalizing on a rising middle class are bound to benefit.

Alibaba, for instance, has enjoyed a first-mover advantage as Chinese consumers demand more and better products. By connecting sellers and buyers online, the company has created a colossal marketplace that has a total value of goods sold greater than eBay and Amazon combined.

The firm's portals now control four-fifths of all online shopping in China. The market is still expanding with more non-shoppers starting to shop and the rest of the country's population getting online. Riding the waves of China's growth, the company has reaped a good fortune and grabbed the headlines of global news media -- something almost unimaginable just a decade ago.

The social impact of the online business is felt across China. Taobao, a consumer-to-consumer marketplace under Alibaba, has changed the lives of millions of Chinese. As it reaches into every corner of the country, small businesses thrived in rural China, creating jobs and empowering people in less developed regions.

The men at the helm of the tech business, such as Jack Ma, have demonstrated the creative power of a new generation of Chinese entrepreneurs, who are going their own way, diverging from Western models. They understood that the Chinese market is different and, with fewer connections to traditional businesses, can easily leapfrog their Western counterparts.

Their trailblazing success is likely to encourage and inspire more Chinese entrepreneurs. Business environment is rapidly improving in China, with easier financial access for startups and fewer government interferences. Keen to foster innovative companies such as Alibaba, Beijing is working hard to cut red tape and accelerate tough financial reforms.

The path ahead will not be easy for either policymakers or entrepreneurs. But they both will benefit from a freer market, and grow fitter for competition on the global stage. Bringing their China experience abroad, especially in the developing world, these tech giants may truly command the world stage in the years to come.