Gains aside, it's been thoroughly interesting following this company the last few months and reading financial critics comments on it. I worked in China for 2 years and very strongly believe that 'the west' is still hugely underestimating this company; purely on the basis that the west doesn't understand what life is like in China.
I laugh every time Alibaba or Taobao (which is essentially the core of Alibaba) is compared to eBay or Amazon because they just don't come close. Yes there are similarities but Taobao is on another level. It's engrained into Chinese life to the point where many ONLY use Taoboa to make purchases, whatever the purchase. A new TV.... taobao, insurance.... Taobao, a holiday..... Taobao, a new car... Taobao, your dinner for the evening... guess what... Taobao. That's a huge majority of their 1.3 billion population all using just 1 company to buy the bulk of their purchases. That just doesn't exist in the west.
Look at the share price rise for Amazon or Facebook over the last 5 years then look at Alibaba's meager 85% rise. Alibaba will eclipse them all with taobao alone. I haven't even mentioned alipay (PayPal but immensely bigger), youku (Chinese YouTube), lazada, tmall or their enormous cloud system.
Submitted November 21, 2017 at 05:17PM by fchris17 http://ift.tt/2AlkC0q
