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Total consumer sales across Alibaba’s extensive marketplaces reached a whopping $296 Billion last year according to a company report dating August 2014, to put that into perspective, it’s an amount far exceeding double the sales of both eBay and Amazon for the same year. Alibaba’s net worth in fact, is estimated at an impressive $16.3 billion.\u00a0Alibaba’s\u00a0impressive profit margins are due, in no small part, to the company’s relatively minimal overheads as a result of its predominantly digital existence. When you consider the long term growth plan in place by Alibaba’s competitors such as Google or even Apple, share prices are proof that giant company spendings with regards to acquisitions, innovations and long term planning are seen as promising investments and despite worthy enthusiasm for Alibaba’s IPO which starts trading at $68 a share on the NYSE (predictions for shares is estimated to reach 22 billion, a nice expansion fund), if the same intensive spending like that of competitors isn’t undertaken\u00a0showing\u00a0a clear vision towards growth and expansion, investors may lose interest quickly.<\/p>\n
Alibaba’s most impressive asset at this point in time; however, is the data regarding consumer behaviour which the company undoubtedly holds\u00a0as a result of the amount of commerce passing across its multitude of platforms. Alibaba has a firm grip on consumer behaviour from the world’s leading consumer market, with a proverbial finger in such a large and varied assortment of pies, Alibaba isn’t pigeon holed in the way giants normally tend to be (e.g Google = search engine, Amazon = marketplace) and with this all inclusive recognition as part of the brand’s identity comes immense power for broad establishment. \u201cWith great depth and breadth of visibility into consumer behavior, Alibaba will be able to assemble a highly detailed profile of its consumers \u2014 which will allow it to become much smarter and sell far more,\u201d – Forrester analyst Brian Wang.<\/p>\n
Alibaba, a company employing\u00a0upwards of 20,884 <\/strong>people, has an\u00a0initial public offering estimate of 22 billion,\u00a0the biggest in US stock market history.<\/p>\n Interestingly enough, in a report\u00a0by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission on the potential risks\u00a0of investing in Chinese internet companies<\/a>, Russian steel-baron and tech investor,\u00a0Alisher Usmanov is mentioned\u00a0as being a major investor in Alibaba, purchasing his stock through two separate entities, one of them being\u00a0Digital Sky Technologies which famously scrapped US stocks <\/a>and reinvested the money in the Chinese market, nobody likes to chase their investments with a shot\u00a0of politics and this could be a slight deterrent for Alibaba’s success in the United States.<\/p>\n All in all, Alibaba’s prospects would be nearly unimaginable if they weren’t true, taking into consideration that\u00a0Jack Ma, (previously an English teacher) and his co-founders set up their Internet company in an apartment just over fifteen years ago. The truth is, Alibaba is the face of a changing global economy, ‘developing’ countries are now producing major companies who are securing themselves as integral\u00a0players on the global stage and investors are finally paying due attention to this shift.<\/p>\n [At the time of publishing, Alibaba shares were trading at $92.70]<\/p>\n It’s fair to say that world is watching Alibaba and every move the company makes in the following weeks will be done so under intense pressure, but it’s also fair to say that those watching are anticipating big things.<\/p>\n