Posting accelerated revenue growth in last quarter of 2013, Chinese internet company Alibaba is widely expected to file for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in the US early next week.

The flotation on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) - and the speculation is that this will happen in early Q3 - could even top that of Facebook, which raised $15bn for investment on its IPO in 2012.

Alibaba posted a 66% uplift in sales in the three months to December 2013 to 43.1bn, compared with the previous year.

The revelation came about as Yahoo, which holds a 24% stake in the company, was obliged to give some financial details as part of its quarterly earnings report.

The size of the Chinese company is staggering: Alibaba is bigger than eBay and Amazon combined. It powers 80% of all Chinese online consumer shopping, and the Alibaba site processed over $5.75bn in sales on the Chinese equivalent of Black Friday.

Alibaba, which was formed in 1999 and is headed by former English teacher Jack Ma, is not commenting on the IPO other than with the statement that: "This will make us a more global company and enhance the company's transparency, as well as allow the company to continue to pursue our long-term vision and ideals."

Financial spread better IG has opened a gray market on Alibaba, where traders can take a position on where they see the company market cap at the close of the first day of conditional trading.

IG analyst Chris Beauchamp said that while the tech sector has come under pressure recently, for once Alibaba is a company that should justify the hype. “Amazon revolutionised the shopping experience in the west, and Alibaba has done the same in China,” he said.

“With the current pressure on tech stocks there’s a tendency to throw the good stuff out with the bad, but Alibaba is a company that shows real promise.”