Quality of life is the only meaningful metric. China's ultimate goal is to create bounded equality. Xi himself has implied their propensity has brought the country on a path they don't want and now they're trying to revert it back.
Alibaba has lost $344B market cap in the past year
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Re: Alibaba has lost $344B market cap in the past year
#12I used to think of Alibaba as the one legitimate Chinese company. Their product seems sound to me: we'll navigate the complex world of Chinese factory for you and take a cut off the top.
But apparently, most of their growth since IPO has come from mainland sales. Which seems to go against the narrative I just stated. Their Edgar SEC filings don't break out revenue as much as I would like. [0]
So are they a scam? The very opinionated Deep Throat IPO seems to think so. [1]
[0]: https://otp.investis.com/clients/us/alibaba/SEC/sec-show.asp...
[1]: http://www.deepthroatipo.com/alibaba-december-quarter-2020-r...
Re: Alibaba has lost $344B market cap in the past year
#13Great time to accumulate $BABA.
Not too familiar with it, and pretty concerned about the riskiness of owning it, but do you know if BABA is a Cayman Structure?
Re: Alibaba has lost $344B market cap in the past year
#14Great time to accumulate $BABA.
Maybe. Depends on if you agree/disagree with the wider market on the inherent problems with BABA and more specifically the relative insecurity/danger of Chinese government intervention. I previously held BABA. I exited at roughly break-even. Furthermore, I won't re-enter for the same reason I exited, the Chinese government can and have ruined Chinese-born companies at the flick of a pen. I think BABA has a good busin…
And $BABA is a “variable interest entity” if you’re buying it as an American.
You don’t really own any of the operating corp if you buy its shares, so you have both regulatory risk and contract default risk with ??? recourse.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-and-chinese-regulators-are-...
Re: Alibaba has lost $344B market cap in the past year
#15The unexpected $15.5 billion in spending on Xi Jinping's "common prosperity" initiatives was unsettling. It was only 10% of their net income for 2020, so not terrible as a one-time hit, but really drove home for me that the government might unexpectedly expropriate large amounts of shareholder value in the future. Baidu, Tencent, and others also had to pay up.
Re: Alibaba has lost $344B market cap in the past year
#16The Wall Street Journal has published several articles about the current economic reforms in China. https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/xi-jinping-aims-to-rein-in-... https://archive.vn/DRIDr > Xi Jinping’s campaign against private enterprise, it is increasingly clear, is far more ambitious than meets the eye. > The Chinese President is not just trying to rein in a few big tech and other companies and show who is boss i…
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Re: Alibaba has lost $344B market cap in the past year
#17A better way to look at this is that the risk presented by the Chinese government to Alibaba has increased, so that has to be discounted against future cash flow. The market cap reflects an increase in external risks.
Re: Alibaba has lost $344B market cap in the past year
#18Xi is trying to force a centuries long transition into a single decade, laughable to say the least
Re: Alibaba has lost $344B market cap in the past year
#19The unexpected $15.5 billion in spending on Xi Jinping's "common prosperity" initiatives was unsettling. It was only 10% of their net income for 2020, so not terrible as a one-time hit, but really drove home for me that the government might unexpectedly expropriate large amounts of shareholder value in the future. Baidu, Tencent, and others also had to pay up.
There may be some policies/actions from the Chinese government I don't like but certainly not that one, I think it's laudable to take measures to shrink the gap between rich and poor and raise the standard of living for everyone before having some tiny percentage of the population living like kings.
In many western countries this divide is increasing and it doesn't look like it's stopping anytime soon unless measures are taken.
As an example, in the UK, where I live, the median yearly salary is roughly £31k, which means you take home about £2k each month. Start subtracting rent/mortgage, car/public transportation, bills, groceries, toiletries, and just stuff necessary for living and you won't be left with much for pleasure and entertainment, i.e., for living beyond surviving.
Which is btw why I find some HN users are sometimes in such a bubble when they make comments about how they despise ad-supported websites and would love for them to be paid instead; that's lacking empathy, not realising that soooo many people wouldn't be able to afford a system like that, or if they did they would have to give up a bunch of other things instead.
Re: Alibaba has lost $344B market cap in the past year
#20Xi's reforms are not just a flash in the pan or motivated by his desire to reign in some rogue companies, it seems like there is a fundamental shift in policy - moving away from free wheeling capitalism which has lifted millions out of property but has also come at a huge cost - loss of cultural and family values and corruption. Xi wants to re-align with socialist values, which is a good sign for the country. But, it remains to be seen how he can successfully maneuver the country in that direction.