Alibaba's transaction volume on its sites hit $463b

Alibaba chief executive officer Zhang Yong announces the gross merchandise volume at a press conference at its headquarter in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, March 21, 2016. [Photo by Cai Xiao / chinadaily.com.cn]

E-commerce giant Alibaba Group announced on Monday afternoon that transaction volume on its sites hit 3 trillion yuan ($463 billion), an equivalent GDP value of 3.01 trillion yuan in China's southeastern Sichuan province last year.

The company's chief executive officer Zhang Yong made the announcement at its Hangzhou headquarters with more than a week left in its fiscal year.

That sum represents a tripling of the Chinese e-commerce giant's gross merchandise volume, or GMV, since 2012 and a doubling since 2013, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The gross merchandise volume, or GMV, is a measure of the total value of third party sellers' transactions on Alibaba's platforms, including Taobao, Tmall, Juhuasuan, and Rural Taobao.

The number, a milestone for the company, shows it could overtake Walmart to become the world's largest retail network in the fiscal year ending later this month, China Radio International reported.

Walmart posted revenue at more than $482.1 billion for the fiscal year ending Jan 31 and net sales of $478.6 billion. Alibaba's revenue stood nearly $14.7 billion in 2015.

Cai Xiao contributed to this story.