The award-winning independent documentary film, Crocodile in the Yangtze River: The Alibaba Story, has just been released in digital format as the e-commerce giant prepares for what could possibly be the largest tech IPO in history.

The documentary film follows the early days of China's then internet startup as it wages war against U.S. giant eBay to dominate its home market. It presents a candid portrait of how Jack Ma, Alibaba's charismatic founder and China's first online entrepreneur, transformed a fledgling startup to a global company with 24,000 employees.

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Ma stepped down last May as CEO but remains as its executive chairman.

Drawing from 200 hours archival footage filmed between 1995 to 2009, the documentary illustrates the David and Goliath battle between Alibaba and eBay as seen through the eyes of former Alibaba VP, Porter Erisman, who described himself as an "American fly on a Chinese wall." Erisman worked as Alibaba's VP for international marketing and corporate affairs for 8 and a half years before leaving the company in 2009.

The independent film came out in April 2012 and received several notable awards, including Silicon Valley Film Festival's 'Best Film on Innovation and Entrepreneurship'.

In an interview with Beijing-based journalist, Debra Bruno, Erisman said that the upcoming IPO will "jolt business people in the West, making them aware of what's happening on the ground in terms of e-commerce."

China has always been thought to lag behind the West in the e-commerce industry. Companies like Alibaba and its retail branch, Taobao, demonstrate how local companies could give U.S.-based internet giants a run for their money.

TagsDocumentary, Alibaba Group, Crocodile in the Yangtze River: The Alibaba Story, Jack Ma