Alibaba, which is a online shopping company founded by a talented guy – Jack Ma, has generated “buzz” all around the world recently for its IPO.
Like Ali Baba, who discovered the secret of a gold coin cave and got rich in that old Arabic folk tale, Alibaba is getting strong economic power as the founder – Jack Ma found out the secret of how to attract customers and build brand reputation for Alibaba. Now, with increasing public concerns about its world-wide expansion plan, the competitive advantages of it reveal. Meanwhile, it possibly posts a threat to online-shopping giants – eBay and Amazon.
Established in 1999, Alibaba has been though a tough time to convince customers e-tailing is trustworthy. It is, at present, focusing on two channels online – Tmall and Taobao. While Tmall is primarily for brand goods with authorization (E-tailors should have business licence.), Taobao is for whoever wants to sell anything they are willing to (A consumer-to-consumer platform). From statistic provided online, there are almost 1 billion products provided in Taobao, and 60% of the parcels in express are from Taobao.
China has the biggest market on e-business as people prefer e-tailing because it saves money and gives them a variety of choices in goods. It is, to some extent, boost the prosperity of online shopping. At the same time, this may result in an influx of wholesalers into Alibaba as the demand increases. With this positive cycle model, it is not a difficult thing for Alibaba to apply its excellent models to explore world-wide market.
In a word, Alibaba is a legend with intelligent stuff and extraordinary model. It is predicable that Alibaba would be a lot stronger in world after its IPO.
Reference
Photo from (https://www.google.ca/search?q=alibaba&espv=2&biw=1185&bih=621&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=bNUkVOORFtD6oQS054HACQ&sqi=2&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg)
Forbes (http://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2014/09/20/beyond-the-ipo-buzz-alibabas-advantages/)
The Economists (http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21573981-chinas-e-commerce-giant-could-generate-enormous-wealthprovided-countrys-rulers-leave-it)