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All the Western companies you’d have to combine to get something like Alibaba

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Re: All the Western companies you’d have to combine to get something like Alibaba

#21

Post by dengnan »

notatoad wrote: post #10

online payments ---- google wallet cloud services ---- google cloud platform mobile apps ---- google play mobile OS ---- android maps and nav ---- google maps physical retail ---- ? no google product shopping deals ---- google offers cloud storage ---- google drive instant messaging ---- google hangouts car service ---- uber (via google ventures) c2c ecommerce ---- ? no google product travel booking ---- google fligh…

It's also about the scale. Most of their services are top competitors in the market. For example, Alipay, or 支付宝, is the de facto online payment service in China. As far as I know, I cannot imagine another company which provides similar service in China. Part of the reason is the government regulation.

Re: All the Western companies you’d have to combine to get something like Alibaba

#22

Post by cromwellian »

jfasi wrote: post #5

I love this article. Despite the multitudes of news sources telling us about how commerce is now global and business is no longer tied to a place and the internet is changing the world, there is still an ocean of enterprises of which we US-based-or-english-speaking technologists are ignorant. Take a moment to think about this: Alibaba is a huge company, growing in an absolutely enormous market, providing a pile of se…

It's not exactly purely an aspect of Western companies ignoring China or localizing property for China that is the culprit here. The Chinese government also makes it difficult, especially in the realm of internet services, for Western companies to play.

I know plenty of American technologists who are well aware of Chinese internet properties, how could they not, when disproportionately many American technologists are of Asian descent, but many of them have made the decision that it is preferable to run your startup in the relative unfettered chaos of Silicon Valley than to navigate the maze and minefield of considerations of running an internet service in China.

I'm pretty sure Google would love to have another billion Gmail users or Google search users, or to have Google Play store available (for paid apps) in China. Do you think the fact that these services are blocked are because of ignorance?

Re: All the Western companies you’d have to combine to get something like Alibaba

#23

Post by jareds »

notatoad wrote: post #10

online payments ---- google wallet cloud services ---- google cloud platform mobile apps ---- google play mobile OS ---- android maps and nav ---- google maps physical retail ---- ? no google product shopping deals ---- google offers cloud storage ---- google drive instant messaging ---- google hangouts car service ---- uber (via google ventures) c2c ecommerce ---- ? no google product travel booking ---- google fligh…

Depending on your deffinition of e-learning Google Classroom may provide what you need. http://www.google.com/edu/classroom/

Re: All the Western companies you’d have to combine to get something like Alibaba

#25

Post by thothamon »

It's not clear to me how it's good for me as a consumer to have one company providing me everything. That seems to go wrong more often than it goes well.

As an investor, I can see how a monopolistic behemoth might be good, assuming we ignore possible legal problems. But I'd also worry that a huge company like that would not be able to focus effectively on the probably hundreds or thousands of products and markets in which they must be involved. Huge companies like Exxon, say, are at least focused primarily on energy needs; Amazon on online retailing; Apple or Sony on consumer electronics and software. What is Alibaba focused on? (And yes, the same question could be asked about Google, although search and ads are probably the biggest things.)

What is Alibaba currently really world-class at, OTHER than owning the Chinese market from top to bottom? Owning the Chinese market is probably caused as much by cronyism as by being really good at anything.

Re: All the Western companies you’d have to combine to get something like Alibaba

#27

Post by podman »

Although Alibaba is a huge company that does a ton of different things, I feel like this article went out of the way to avoid mentioning that companies like Google and Amazon (as well as Microsoft and Apple to a lesser extent) come close to checking all of these boxes. The other thing to point out is that Alibaba owns stakes in many of these companies and doesn't really own them outright.

As others have already pointed out how Google compares, take Amazon for instance:

Online Payments - Amazon Payments

Cloud Services - Amazon Web Services

Mobile Apps - Amazon AppStore

Mobile OS - Amazon FireOS

Maps and Navigation - Amazon Maps API

Retail Outlets - N/A

Group Buying - Amazon Local

Cloud Storage - Amazon CloudDrive / Amazon S3

Mobile Messaging - N/A

Car Service, Ride Sharing - N/A

C2C e-commerice - Amazon Services/Amazon WebStore (not quite the same, but close)

Online Travel Booking - N/A

B2C e-commerce - Amazon.com

E-Learning - http://www.tenmarks.com/ (owned by Amazon)

Microblogging - N/A

Music Streaming - Amazon Cloud Player

Streaming Video - Amazon Prime Instant Streaming

Money-market funds - N/A

12/18 isn't bad.

Re: All the Western companies you’d have to combine to get something like Alibaba

#28

Post by prawks »

dengnan wrote: post #21
notatoad wrote: post #10

online payments ---- google wallet cloud services ---- google cloud platform mobile apps ---- google play mobile OS ---- android maps and nav ---- google maps physical retail ---- ? no google product shopping deals ---- google offers cloud storage ---- google drive instant messaging ---- google hangouts car service ---- uber (via google ventures) c2c ecommerce ---- ? no google product travel booking ---- google fligh…

It's also about the scale. Most of their services are top competitors in the market. For example, Alipay, or 支付宝, is the de facto online payment service in China. As far as I know, I cannot imagine another company which provides similar service in China. Part of the reason is the government regulation.

The thing I wonder about their status as a top competitor: how different would their status be in a less restrictive market?

How does Alipay's user experience compare to Paypal's? Is it the lack of competition that has enabled them to expand their reach so widely (by not having to focus so much effort on each venture)? For example, the experience of shopping on AliExpress is (imo) sub-par when compared to most Western online shopping experiences I've had (Amazon, Zappos, and even smaller retailers).

I don't know a whole ton about the Eastern market to be honest, so I'm open to being educated.

Re: All the Western companies you’d have to combine to get something like Alibaba

#30

Post by mbell »

I've seen a lot of articles talking about how huge Alibaba is, but they all seem to focus only on transaction volume, e.g 'Alibaba has more sales than Amazon and eBay combined!'. I was really surprised when I read their filing, $4.7B in total revenue last financial year, $5.7B in the first 9 months of this financial year. Amazon + eBay in 2013 pulled in $33B in revenue. They seem to be processing a lot of transactions, but charging very little for it.
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