ALIBABA, A STRANGER A GIANT WALL STREET

The IPO is scheduled for 19 September. There is great attention from investors but, according to a survey conducted by Ipsos for Reuters, the vast majority of Americans have never heard of Alibaba. The world’s largest online business-to-business connects wholesalers and manufacturers, mainly Chinese, with entrepreneurs from all over the world. It has two platforms, Taobao and Tmall, leading to Chinese group 280 million active buyers and sellers of 8.5 million. The challenge that awaits Alibaba, however, is on the commercial front, pushing the main competitors, Amazon and eBay.
Alibaba, the giant unknown, in reality the invoice, Amazon and eBay combined and concentrated to 80% of online sales in China, a country where businesses operate primarily through the Internet. The company was founded in 1999 by Jack Ma, a 49 year-old former English teacher, who has in his hands a giant valued at around 150-160 billion dollars, more or less than the market value of Facebook. Forbes estimated his value even higher, around $ 168 billion. As a comparison, consider that Apple, the company with the highest rating of the Stock Exchange in the world, has a market capitalization of 592 billion dollars
The Global Times newspaper reports that the number of online transactions in China reached 25.8 billion in 2013 (+ 27.4% compared to 2012), for a total value of 1,075 billion yuan (equivalent to over 177 trillion dollars ). The increase of 29.46% over the previous year, show figures released by the People’s Bank of China (PBC), the central bank of the country. Of total transactions, 1.67 billion were made via payment services on mobile phones, with an increase of 212.86% over 2012.
The Beijing government has launched a few months ago a series of measures to increase protections for the approximately 302 million online shoppers. The new law applies only to goods purchased in the domestic market and excludes perishables or digital. Zhang Yu, president of e-commerce platform Taobao, one of the two information technology giant Alibaba, told the Chinese newspaper Global Times that “with the implementation of the new rules, online shopping will become more reliable for the consumer and therefore will open to more business prospects. “Even more business, then, in the largest market of e-commerce in the world.