Alibaba

[xaeniac]

What do you know about it; Is it going to soar or take a dump? I had never heard about it until recently.

 

[IronWing]

After reading about how the company is structured there ain't no way I'd buy in. Jack Ma can legally take the money and run.

 

[bbhaag]

It's the Amazon of China. Place your bet on either one. They both have insane sales figures but neither one can seem to make a decent sales margin.

I can't imagine operating the way they do. It doesn't make sense in the long term. Ask Walmart about low margins over a long term work. It just doesn't make sense.

 

[Printer Bandit]

site design could use more work

http://www.alibaba.com

 

[Red Squirrel]

I've run across it while searching for obscure items that even ebay does not seem to have listed, but most of the time you need to order many. It seems like it's more of a high output supplier than a retail site for the average joe.

 

[UglyCasanova]

It's the Amazon of China. Place your bet on either one. They both have insane sales figures but neither one can seem to make a decent sales margin.

I can't imagine operating the way they do. It doesn't make sense in the long term. Ask Walmart about low margins over a long term work. It just doesn't make sense.

I'm not sure that is necessarily true. From what I understand alibaba makes most of its money through internal advertising and has a healthy margin.

 

[senseamp]

- Chinese company
- IPO
- Being talked about on ATOT

Run, do not walk, away.

 

[Argo]

After reading about how the company is structured there ain't no way I'd buy in. Jack Ma can legally take the money and run.

I don't think that can be true for a public ally traded company...

 

[senseamp]

I don't think that can be true for a public ally traded company...

Hong Kong stock exchange refused to list it due to its corporate structure. Not good enough for it's own country's stock exchange, but NYSE will take it

 

[maddogchen]

saw this on bogleheads.

How To Tell If You Should Buy Alibaba Stock, In 1 Simple Flowchart

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/19/alibaba-ipo-flowchart_n_5850568.html?utm_hp_ref=business

 

[Michael]

I work in China sbout 1/2 the time. Alibaba is the dominant ecommerce company in China without any doubt. I bought shares today. Google and Facebook and other US companies have similar control structures.

Michael

 

[Dari]

Hong Kong stock exchange refused to list it due to its corporate structure. Not good enough for it's own country's stock exchange, but NYSE will take it

Yeah, some of our people were at the NYSE on Friday for ceremonial reasons. My wife, who was also there (no idea why), wants to invest but I said hell no. Investing in a shell company that's contracted to get profit from the family of Alibaba companies stinks. Too many ways for things to go wrong.

And, just the other day, another Chinese company made news when it's boss and CFO escaped with all the company's money. They were listed in Germany...

 

[dmcowen674]

Alibaba

What do you know about it; Is it going to soar or take a dump? I had never heard about it until recently.

Obviously all the rich ATers went all in and made even more millions as this is the biggest IPO ever now.

Congrats to all the rich spoiled brats.

9-19-2014

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/alibaba-group-raises-21-8-061704244.html

Alibaba Surges in Debut Following Record-Breaking $21.8 Billion U.S. IPO


The Chinese company's shares rose 38 percent to $93.89 in New York today, after the IPO was priced at $68. The e-commerce company, which started in 1999 with $60,000 cobbled together by founder Jack Ma, is now valued at $231.4 billion. That makes it larger than Amazon.com Inc. and EBay Inc. combined, and more valuable than all but 10 companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.

 

[ponyo]

I don't know much about Alibaba other than the fact it's supposed to dominate ecommerce in China. I first heard about the company about 10 years ago when Baidu went public. Baidu was to be the Google of China, and Alibaba the Amazon/Ebay of China. I didn't believe the hype or the story. I traded Baidu long/short when Baidu was $4 billion company up to $16 billion. Looking back I wish I had just closed my eyes and bought and held Baidu shares.

I had really negative impression of Alibaba when I first heard about it years ago because it sounded lot like Commerce One, Ariba, Internet Capital Group, and host of other B2B companies that got hyped up and had crazy runup in stock price. All came crashing down and burned. It didn't help when I googled a product and it showed Alibaba listing with product order form similar to B2B. But it looks like Alibaba is all grown up now. You can't ignore its real sales and profits. The company is making lot of money now and still growing really fast. I don't know how successful it will be outside of China but I don't think that's as important. As long as it's the dominant player in China, it will be fine.

I did buy some shares of Alibaba to trade. I couldn't resist the action and the free money.

 

[dmcowen674]

I don't know much about Alibaba other than the fact it's supposed to dominate ecommerce in China. I first heard about the company about 10 years ago when Baidu went public. Baidu was to be the Google of China, and Alibaba the Amazon/Ebay of China. I didn't believe the hype or the story. I traded Baidu long/short when Baidu was $4 billion company up to $16 billion. Looking back I wish I had just closed my eyes and bought and held Baidu shares.

I had really negative impression of Alibaba when I first heard about it years ago because it sounded lot like Commerce One, Ariba, Internet Capital Group, and host of other B2B companies that got hyped up and had crazy runup in stock price. All came crashing down and burned. It didn't help when I googled a product and it showed Alibaba listing with product order form similar to B2B. But it looks like Alibaba is all grown up now. You can't ignore its real sales and profits. The company is making lot of money now and still growing really fast. I don't know how successful it will be outside of China but I don't think that's as important. As long as it's the dominant player in China, it will be fine.

I did buy some shares of Alibaba to trade. I couldn't resist the action and the free money.

Interesting tidbit is the clause that the Government of China could pull all of Alibaba's money in a heartbeat.

A lot of people would lose a lot of money in an instant including a lot of Americans.

I am reasonably sure China will pull this money out from them at some point.

It's just the thing human nature has to do.

 

[ponyo]

It's the Amazon of China. Place your bet on either one. They both have insane sales figures but neither one can seem to make a decent sales margin.

I can't imagine operating the way they do. It doesn't make sense in the long term. Ask Walmart about low margins over a long term work. It just doesn't make sense.

Alibaba has 40%+ gross margin. It's nothing like Amazon other than both companies dominate eCommerce in their respective countries. Alibaba has like 80% market share in China. That will come down but the overall market is growing rapidly. If anything, investors are undervaluing Alibaba given its growth rate and market domination.

 

[brianmanahan]

Interesting tidbit is the clause that the Government of China could pull all of Alibaba's money in a heartbeat.

A lot of people would lose a lot of money in an instant including a lot of Americans.

yep, it seems fishy, i am not buying BABA

of course i only buy index funds anyway, but still

i wouldnt buy this even if i was considering individual securities

edit: this may be the first time ever that i have agreed with dmcowen

 

[ponyo]

Interesting tidbit is the clause that the Government of China could pull all of Alibaba's money in a heartbeat.

A lot of people would lose a lot of money in an instant including a lot of Americans.

I am reasonably sure China will pull this money out from them at some point.

It's just the thing human nature has to do.

I worry less about that than I do about Alibaba's numbers. I have natural distrust of Chinese numbers and accounting. I think lot of companies lie and fake numbers. Alibaba's numbers and growth are so amazing that it's hard to believe it can be 100% real. But I'm going to assume plenty of smart people went and checked Alibaba books. Alibaba growth story is the story on growth of internet/mobile commerce in China. If you buy Alibaba shares, you're sort of betting on continued internet/mobile Ecommerce in China since Alibaba controls like 80% of that market. Alibaba made $2 billion+ in profits last quarter. That's no chump change.

 

[TXHokie]

I saw someone posted that it's a wildly successful IPO of a big company named after a famous thief.

 

[ponyo]

Interesting player in this mix is Yahoo. Yahoo owns nice chunk of Alibaba through their $1 billion investment in the company about a decade ago. Yahoo's current marketcap is only slightly more than their holding in Alibaba. It basically means Yahoo the company is valued at pretty much nothing by the market. Pretty amazing. Yahoo's price will now probably follow Alibaba stock performance.

 

[dmcowen674]

Alibaba has 40%+ gross margin. It's nothing like Amazon other than both companies dominate eCommerce in their respective countries. Alibaba has like 80% market share in China. That will come down but the overall market is growing rapidly. If anything, investors are undervaluing Alibaba given its growth rate and market domination.

You sound like a shill for this Alibaba stock.

You disclosed you did in fact buy some but are you being paid to shill for this Company?

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally Posted by dmcowen674
Interesting tidbit is the clause that the Government of China could pull all of Alibaba's money in a heartbeat.

A lot of people would lose a lot of money in an instant including a lot of Americans.

I am reasonably sure China will pull this money out from them at some point.

It's just the thing human nature has to do.

I worry less about that than I do about Alibaba's numbers. I have natural distrust of Chinese numbers and accounting. I think lot of companies lie and fake numbers. Alibaba's numbers and growth are so amazing that it's hard to believe it can be 100% real. But I'm going to assume plenty of smart people went and checked Alibaba books. Alibaba growth story is the story on growth of internet/mobile commerce in China. If you buy Alibaba shares, you're sort of betting on continued internet/mobile Ecommerce in China since Alibaba controls like 80% of that market. Alibaba made $2 billion+ in profits last quarter. That's no chump change.

What does all this shilling have to do with what I said that China could pull the money out in an instant?

 

[DaWhim]

hah......a lot of you guys are clueless about this company. I happen make my living off this site.

alibaba.com is for business to business, i have seen indian company lists their product on it. it's became the list for people to find soucing worldwide.

taobao is a b/c2c platform and only servce the chinese customers. it is like ebay, anyone can open a store and list. unlike ebay, no fees at all

tmall - business to consumer platform, comparable to amazon marketplace.

aliexpress - a mix of taobao+tmall, but the target is for worldwide audiences. check it out folks.

compare alibaba to amazon is just silly. it is not amazon and will never be. alibaba is a mix if google + amazon + ebay.

taobao is able to operate free of charge because it sell ad words just like google and it is very profitable.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally Posted by dmcowen674
Interesting tidbit is the clause that the Government of China could pull all of Alibaba's money in a heartbeat.

A lot of people would lose a lot of money in an instant including a lot of Americans.

yep, it seems fishy, i am not buying BABA

of course i only buy index funds anyway, but still

i wouldnt buy this even if i was considering individual securities

edit: this may be the first time ever that i have agreed with dmcowen

As much as I am the Most Hated person on the Internet that happens even to those that hate me most. Ironing is a beautiful thing.

 

[futurefields]

I ordered something off Alibaba once, one of these black rubberized intellimice 1.1 from China

It never came, I got my money back though