Jack Ma to Retire from Alibaba • Hacker News Board

Re: Jack Ma to Retire from Alibaba

#41

Post by lovich » Sat, Sep 08, 2018, 3:24 AM UTC

icelancer wrote: post #26

analognoise wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're still donating. Are we seriously chastising people for giving money to causes of their own volition because we feel it isn't enough?

Yes, this is basically where we are at today. Apparently we are to hold every rich person to some esoteric standard because every wealthy person made their money by exploiting others; none of them were positive-sum contributors to society. And when someone donates a lot of money, we just say they are buying PR and have calculated the ROI like the terrible capitalist they are, with zero evidence at all this is the cas…

If it's a straight donation maybe it's PRless. The number of people like Trump's or Zuckerberg's who donate to family foundations that give them tax breaks and give them a way to funnel money to their family through jobs that are paid by the foundations, has seriously degraded trust in the concept of charities as organizations.

It's like running a company nowadays and wondering why your employees have no loyalty. Yea, maybe you're the one group that has acted honorably, but 90% of your peers have been rat bastards and you can't be surprised if the average person assumes you are too

Re: Jack Ma to Retire from Alibaba

#42

Post by PakG1 » Sat, Sep 08, 2018, 3:30 AM UTC

crystalmeph wrote: post #39

rgbrenner wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They'll be ok, even with the trade war. The majority (about 90%) of Alibaba's sales are domestic (Chinese). The rest is exports (not just to the US though): https://www.statista.com/statistics/226793/e-commerce-revenu... And read this if you want to get an idea of where their revenue comes from: https://www.nasdaq.com/article/alibaba-baba-misses-q1-earnin...

>The majority (about 90%) of Alibaba's sales are domestic (Chinese) But how many of those domestic customers get their own paycheck from exports? China is moving towards a more domestic-focused economy, but exports are still a big deal for them.

Did you try reading the above linked NASDAQ link?

Total overall revenues:

Alibaba reported revenues of RMB80.9 billion (US$12.23 billion), up 61% from the prior-year quarter. Also, revenues came in slightly above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of US$12.25 billion.

Total revenues related to selling exports:

· International commerce retail business (6% of the total revenues) - Revenues in the quarter were RMB4.3 billion (US$652 million), increasing 64% year over year. The increase was driven by robust GMV growth in two marketplaces, namely Lazada and AliExpress.

· International commerce wholesale business (2% of the total revenues) - This business generated revenues of RMB1.8 billion (US$278 million), increasing 14% from the prior-year quarter. The growth was due to an increase in the number of paying members on alibaba.com platform.

So a total of 8% of total revenues were due to selling exports. Plus, it's not clear how much of that revenue is from Lazada, which is not subject to US tariffs because its target market is Southeast Asia. If anything, everyone is suffering from US tariffs, so Lazada can only grow because it's a trade relationship that doesn't depend on the US.

Re: Jack Ma to Retire from Alibaba

#43

Post by PakG1 » Sat, Sep 08, 2018, 3:35 AM UTC

baybal2 wrote: post #7

fipple wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not at all unusual for senior execs to rarely get promoted, since there are so few roles to promote them into. Look how long Sheryl Sandberg has and will be COO of Facebook.

The thing is, the guy was a no name "overseas business development manager" for all 5 years. He was one of first foreigners in the company.

I don't ask this flippantly. Is it possible that he simply wasn't as good as he thought he was? In situations like this, I often find the company culture can suck, but I also often find that people overrate themselves and aren't willing to develop. I'd say my observations are about half-half.

Re: Jack Ma to Retire from Alibaba

#44

Post by PakG1 » Sat, Sep 08, 2018, 3:37 AM UTC

scarejunba wrote: post #13

baybal2 wrote: post #5

>Among China’s biggest companies, Alibaba is viewed as one of the firms with the deepest ranks of management talent. Claim going perpendicular to experience of every Alibaba employee I met. A person who was singlehandedly running both business development and operations for all of Aliexpress has left the company after 5 years without a promotion. The co has a reputation for squeezing work enthusiasm out from even mos…

Wouldn't that follow? If your talented management ranks run deep the only way up is out. He may be fantastic at what he does but if everyone above is also fantastic, the best thing you can do is raise compensation. Is that what happened?

My friend at Google told me it was the same. So much talent in the company that a lot of really good people were essentially sitting on the bench. Don't know how it is now, but he told me that a little over a decade ago. I imagine it might still be similar.

Re: Jack Ma to Retire from Alibaba

#45

Post by wolco » Sat, Sep 08, 2018, 4:01 AM UTC

fipple wrote: post #6

baybal2 wrote: post #5

>Among China’s biggest companies, Alibaba is viewed as one of the firms with the deepest ranks of management talent. Claim going perpendicular to experience of every Alibaba employee I met. A person who was singlehandedly running both business development and operations for all of Aliexpress has left the company after 5 years without a promotion. The co has a reputation for squeezing work enthusiasm out from even mos…

It’s not at all unusual for senior execs to rarely get promoted, since there are so few roles to promote them into. Look how long Sheryl Sandberg has and will be COO of Facebook.

Whatever punishment lays ahead for facebook Sheryl will be the face of it.

Re: Jack Ma to Retire from Alibaba

#46

Post by jjeaff » Sat, Sep 08, 2018, 4:13 AM UTC

PakG1 wrote: post #42

crystalmeph wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The majority (about 90%) of Alibaba's sales are domestic (Chinese) But how many of those domestic customers get their own paycheck from exports? China is moving towards a more domestic-focused economy, but exports are still a big deal for them.

Did you try reading the above linked NASDAQ link? Total overall revenues: Alibaba reported revenues of RMB80.9 billion (US$12.23 billion), up 61% from the prior-year quarter. Also, revenues came in slightly above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of US$12.25 billion. Total revenues related to selling exports: · International commerce retail business (6% of the total revenues) - Revenues in the quarter were RMB4.3 billion…

I think you misunderstood what they were saying... That it's possible the domestic customers that make up the majority of Alibaba revenue may decrease their spending on the platform if their own incomes rely on exports.

Re: Jack Ma to Retire from Alibaba

#47

Post by larkeith » Sat, Sep 08, 2018, 4:21 AM UTC

dmix wrote: post #36

dqpb wrote: post #9

I hope he's able to make a positive impact on education!

Who knows maybe he'll help accelerate the bankruptcy of colleges [1] with backwards business models, ruined by extremely top heavy administration-first hierarchies pushing tuitions higher. And redirect the cheap capital going to end super expensive degrees with no market to more cost effective models that reflect market-demand (which apparently is not factored into the marketing of university courses to youth).

(You forgot to link your citation, FYI)

Re: Jack Ma to Retire from Alibaba

#48

Post by TuGuQuKu » Sat, Sep 08, 2018, 4:23 AM UTC

analognoise wrote: post #24

opportune wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Philanthropy is in many cases personal PR for the rich, or just something easy to do rather than work or do nothing. I’m sure Buffett and Gates are doing it for other reasons. But generic_billionaire donating paltry amounts of money is just buying goodwill from the public, other rich people, the local community, politicians, etc. A rich person donating 1% of their wealth each year may be donating a lot in absolute te…

They're still donating. Are we seriously chastising people for giving money to causes of their own volition because we feel it isn't enough?

Uh, yes?

I give a higher percentage of my income to charitable causes than any of these "philanthropists" and I manage to not waste an insane amount of money on a disgustingly wasteful life of luxury at the same time, but for some reason I don't have an army of sycophants defending my every action on the internet.

Re: Jack Ma to Retire from Alibaba

#49

Post by TuGuQuKu » Sat, Sep 08, 2018, 4:25 AM UTC

icelancer wrote: post #26

analognoise wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're still donating. Are we seriously chastising people for giving money to causes of their own volition because we feel it isn't enough?

Yes, this is basically where we are at today. Apparently we are to hold every rich person to some esoteric standard because every wealthy person made their money by exploiting others; none of them were positive-sum contributors to society. And when someone donates a lot of money, we just say they are buying PR and have calculated the ROI like the terrible capitalist they are, with zero evidence at all this is the cas…

>Apparently we are to hold every rich person to some esoteric standard because every wealthy person made their money by exploiting others; none of them were positive-sum contributors to society.

Yes, that's correct. What, you think Bezos and Ma are genius visionaries for coming up with the idea of buying things on the internet? A democratically managed worker's co-op could have accomplished the same things as Amazon and Alibaba with almost none of the disgusting exploitative labor practices and wide scale human suffering.

Re: Jack Ma to Retire from Alibaba

#50

Post by TuGuQuKu » Sat, Sep 08, 2018, 4:31 AM UTC

maxerickson wrote: post #22

lovich wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's gone up in the developing world. It hasn't gone up in the US. Infrastructure that the common man relied on is crumbling or is just gone, ie Flint water, and the rich are just importing everything they need to themselves

Portions of the US are worse off. It's still easily the case that the standard of living has increased for most people.

Living standards, calorie consumption, GDP, literacy and life expectancy skyrocketed higher and faster for more people anywhere in history under the early years of the USSR and PRC but we tend to only talk about those metrics when they're convenient.