Alibaba: The Giant of e-Commerce

[cirr]

You are saying that Yahoo and Softbank have very limited voting powers?

While tenable, I don't understand why will someone forego voting rights, especially in the seed stage. Also, Alibaba is popular and profitable only in the recent years, before which it was in deep trouble financially.

That's exactly the case with the listed assets of Alibaba。The so-called majority owners（of listed assets）have only finiancial interests in accordance with their shareholdings。。

Jack Ma and his clan，who represent the majority in the boardroom，have the final say in strategic and operating matters。

Furthermore，the listed BABA，mostly an e-commerce concern，is only part of the Alibaba Empire which has under its umbrella fund management、online payment、banking、microloans、insurance、cloud computing、IT software，operating system、wireless applications、electric vehicles etc etc etc totalling over 25 business divisions，plus investments in a host of high-tech companies and partnerships、none of which has anything to do with the foreign owners。

 

[AndrewJin]

That's exactly the case with the listed assets of Alibaba。The so-called majority owners（of listed assets）have only finiancial interests in accordance with their shareholdings。。

Jack Ma and his clan，who represent the majority in the boardroom，have the final say in strategic and operating matters。

Furthermore，the listed BABA，mostly an e-commerce concern，is only part of the Alibaba Empire which has under its umbrella fund management、online payment、banking、microloans、insurance、cloud computing、IT software，operating system、wireless applications、electric vehicles etc etc etc totalling over 25 business divisions，plus investments in a host of high-tech companies and partnerships、none of which has anything to do with the foreign owners。

Exately. Putting my money in Alipay is safe and its interest rate is higher than any Bank and I can use it anytime.
I'm approaching Jack's hometown(my coach starts from Shanghai, through Zhejiang Province to Anhui Province in Central China，400km,4.5hours, 120yuan).

Have a rest at a service centre.

One of the biggest restrooms I've ever seen(only one third in the photo)

On topic.
I've just bought some Zhejiang-style sticky tofu, Zhejiang-style Zongzi and some drinks.

What amazed me is they accept Alipay. So I showed them my Alipay code in my Alipay APP, they scanned it. Only FIVE Seconds and 5% discount! Although today's G60 national expressway is quite busy and some sections are even congested, but the scenery(village, rape flower field, trees, countryside roads) and bullets trains on the bridge alongside are a feast for my eyes.

 

[tranquilium]

You are saying that Yahoo and Softbank have very limited voting powers?

While tenable, I don't understand why will someone forego voting rights, especially in the seed stage. Also, Alibaba is popular and profitable only in the recent years, before which it was in deep trouble financially.

I do remember reading that the Japan investor started out as an angel investor, hence the non-interference in executive decisions.

 

[Yizhi]

well you guys have answered it all.

Jack Ma: "customers first, employees second and shareholders third."

to OP: you can check why Alibaba had gone to US for IPO instead of HK. plenty of news/reports on this last year.

Exately. Putting my money in Alipay is safe and its interest rate is higher than any Bank and I can use it anytime.
I'm approaching Jack's hometown(my coach starts from Shanghai, through Zhejiang Province to Anhui Province in Central China，400km,4.5hours, 120yuan).
View attachment 214018View attachment 214019

Have a rest at a service centre.
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One of the biggest restrooms I've ever seen(only one third in the photo)
View attachment 214021
View attachment 214022

On topic.
I've just bought some Zhejiang-style sticky tofu, Zhejiang-style Zongzi and some drinks.

What amazed me is they accept Alipay. So I showed them my Alipay code in my Alipay APP, they scanned it. Only FIVE Seconds and 5% discount! Although today's G60 national expressway is quite busy and some sections are even congested, but the scenery(village, rape flower field, trees, countryside roads) and bullets trains on the bridge alongside are a feast for my eyes.
View attachment 214029

Zhejiang looks nice.

 

[AndrewJin]

well you guys have answered it all.

Jack Ma: "customers first, employees second and shareholders third."

to OP: you can check why Alibaba had to go to US for IPO instead of HK. plenty of news/reports on this last year.


Zhejiang looks nice.

Western Zhejiang not bad! I thought mountainous Zhejiang would be poor.

Online business(tourism promotion of a world natural heritage site in Fujian Province) in a toilet along the G56 expressway, at the border between Zhejiang Province and Anhui Province.

 

[xuxu1457]

If you want to be the top on the world, you should share with the world, it's common

 

[cirr]

Western Zhejiang not bad! I thought mountainous Zhejiang would be poor.
View attachment 214035View attachment 214037
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Online business(tourism promotion of a world natural heritage site in Fujian Province) in a toilet along the G56 expressway, at the border between Zhejiang Province and Anhui Province.
View attachment 214040

The popular banquet that serves only the freshest of fishes from the Thousand-Islet Lake is my favorite。

 

[AndrewJin]

The popular banquet that serves only the freshest of fishes from the Thousand-Islet Lake is my favorite。

It's not thousand islet lake, it's a small lake along G56 expressway, S32expressway links Chun'an County where the lake you mentioned located to Hangzhou, Jack's hometown and also Alibaba's Headquarter.

 

[TaiShang]

Alibaba to Build 'Smart Cities' in Fujian Province
2015-05-12

Logo of Alipay, Alibaba's online payment service, is seen in Shanghai in this file photo. [File Photo: Li Liang/CFP]


Internet giant Alibaba has signed a strategic deal with the government of Fujian Province to build "smart cities".

Under the deal, Alibaba will bring its cloud-computing technologies to all sorts of services in Fujian. One example is that by using Alibaba's Alipay service, residents will be able to pay utility bills on their mobile phones.

Aliyun, Alibaba's cloud-computing unit, will work with government departments to deal with big data and improve efficiency.

As an e-commerce company, Alibaba is also looking to explore e-commerce opportunities in rural areas in the province.

 

[TaiShang]

Alibaba to launch Netflix-like video streaming service
June 15, 2015

A receptionist works at Alibaba's headquarters in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province, Jan 30, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]



Alibaba Group Holding Ltd will launch an online video streaming service in China in about two months, hoping to emulate the US's Netflix Inc and HBO, the firm's head of digital entertainment said on Sunday.

The service will be called 'TBO', or Tmall Box Office, with content bought from China and other countries, as well as in-house productions, Alibaba's Patrick Liu told reporters in Shanghai.

TBO will launch into a competitive online video market in China, where companies are spending billions of dollars to buy media content to attract enough viewers to become dominant.

Alibaba's new service will go up against the likes of Tencent Holdings Ltd, Baidu Inc's iQiyi, Sohu.com Inc and Leshi Internet Information & Technology Corp Beijing (LeTV).

"Our mission, the mission of all of Alibaba, is to redefine home entertainment," said Liu. "Our goal is to become like HBO in the United States, to become like Netflix in the United States."

It was not immediately clear how the service would fit with Youku Tudou Inc, one of China's biggest video streaming platforms in which Alibaba bought a 16.5 percent stake last year.

However, unlike the majority of domestic rivals, about 90 percent of TBO's content will be paid for, either by monthly subscription or on a show-by-show basis, Liu said. The remaining 10 percent would be free.

Netflix itself is also considering an entry into China.

 

[TaiShang]

'We see the power of the Chinese Dream'
June 15, 2015



Alibaba (Photo/People's Daily Online)

On June 9 2015 Jack Ma, the founder and executive chairman of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, became the first Chinese entrepreneur to give a speech to the Economic Club of New York. Over 800 people paid 300 dollars to hear Ma's speech. Why are US business circles paying so much attention to a Chinese entrepreneur?

Since Alibaba went public on the New York Stock Exchange in September, it has become a well-known name in US. The questions he faces most frequently, says Ma, include "When are you going to compete with Amazon? When are you going to compete with eBay?"

"We are not here to compete," Ma said in his speech. He emphasized that Alibaba can empower small businesses in the U.S. by providing online traffic, payment systems and logistic systems, to allow them to sell their goods easily in China and tap into the country's rising middle class. "We have the greatest respect for eBay and Amazon," he said.

"And I think that for us, the biggest opportunity and the wisest strategy lies in helping small businesses in America."

Behind Jack Ma, there is the largest consumer market in the world. Statistics show thatthe cross-border online consumption of Chinese consumers grew rapidly from less than 2billion dollars in 2010 to over 20 billion dollars in 2014.

 

[cirr]

Alibaba’s Digital Bank Comes Online To Serve ‘The Little Guys’ In China

Posted 23 hours ago by Jon Russell (@jonrussell)

You may know Alibaba for its huge e-commerce business in China and the record-breaking U.S. IPO that it held last year. But there’s a lot more to the Hangzhou-based company than that, and as of this week, that includes an online bank.

Alibaba-backed MYbank opened Thursday with a promise to provide services “for the little guys.” The service is an all-digital bank, it has no physical branches but is open 24/7. It is aimed at those who tend to end up a little short changed by the existing banking system — SMEs who struggle to fit into a financial bracket for loans and services, and those in rural areas who have issues accessing branches and banks in person.

“Answering to the needs of those who have limited access to financial services in China is our mission,” said Eric Jing, president of Ant Financial — the Alibaba affiliate backing the bank.

“MYbank is here to give affordable loans for small and micro enterprises, and we are here to provide banking services, not for the rich, but for the little guys,” Jing, who is also executive chairman of MYbank, added.

Initially, it is aiming to pay out loans of up to 5 million RMB ($800,000) to SMEs, enterprises, entrepreneurs and consumers — although it still requires final green lights from authorities before it can break the seal on its purse of 4 billion RMB ($640 million) in registered capital.

The bank believes it can pass on savings to customers by cutting out the expensive processes and systems that traditional banks deal with. For example, MYBank uses cloud computing rather than internal IT systems, while it has kept its staff to 300 employees thanks to being digital.

MYbank has the potential to be disruptive, particularly piggybacking the Alibaba name and brand in China, but Jing said he intends to work with the bank’s traditional peers too.

Alibaba isn’t the only Chinese internet firm moving into banking. Tencent, the creator of smash-hit chat app WeChat, began piloting WeBank, which was China’s first digital bank, in January of this year.

Ant Financial’s other services include Alipay, the payment service that processes three times more payments than PayPal, a loan program, and online investment platform Yu’e Bao. Ant Financial, which was formerly known as Alipay, was spun out of Alibaba prior to the firm’s blockbuster U.S. listing and it is tipped to go public in China within the next two years. (nice move)

Alibaba’s Digital Bank Comes Online To Serve ‘The Little Guys’ In China | TechCrunch

 

[cirr]

China blurs lines between banking and e-commerce

26 JUN 2015 00:00 BLOOMBERG



China is the scene of a growing rivalry. In one corner is billionaire Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group Holding, which holds the title as the country’s biggest online retailer. In the other are China’s biggest banks.

This week, Alibaba is launching MYbank, an online lender that will tap into Chinese savers’ record $7.8-trillion of deposits and a banking revenue stream that’s forecast to double by 2020.

Banks have been striking back by pushing into the business Ma pioneered in China, online malls. The moves are blurring the lines between banking and e-commerce as China’s government continues encouraging competition in the finance industry and as Chinese increasingly use computers and cellphones to bank and shop.

“China’s banks have woken up and realised that the challenge from Alibaba’s entry into banking is for real,” said David He, a Hong Kong-based partner and managing director of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). “For them, doing e-commerce is a defence as well as a counterattack.”

The Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), which is the world’s most profitable company and dwarfs Alibaba’s net income by more than 10 times, set up a platform allowing retailers to sell the bank’s customers wine, shampoo, appliances and more. The China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China and others are also getting in on the action.

ICBC’s site, called Easy to Buy, is forecasting sales of 300-billion yuan (R586-billion) this year, after tallying 130-billion yuan so far since January. By comparison, Alibaba’s Tmall logged 763-billion yuan in sales last year. JD.com ranked number two at 260-billion yuan.

The battle will play out entirely online: the banks aren’t planning any warehousing of inventory, leaving that to the merchants. MYbank and Tencent Holdings’ online WeBank, which launched in December, plan no physical branches.

“It’s fair game in China, where everyone is trying to improve on the consumer experience,” said Joe Ngai, the Hong Kong-based head of McKinsey & Co banking practice.

Revenue from online retailing is expected to reach four trillion yuan this year, according to the China e-Business Research Centre. By the year’s end, more than 850-million Chinese are expected to be online, more than the population of any other country except India, according to the ministry of industry and information technology.

Retail banking revenues are expected to double to 3.5-trillion yuan by 2020, BCG estimates show.

As of Wednesday, ICBC had a market value of $302-billion against $210-billion for Alibaba.

“The future of finance, including banking, no longer hinges on brick-and-mortar operations, but integration with the web, the mobile and serving customers anywhere 24/7,” said Chen Xingyu, a Shanghai-based analyst at Phillip Securities Research. – © Bloomberg

 

[Jesus Christ 2015]

How does online bank work

 

[cirr]

How does online bank work

facial recognition，digital signature，etc etc。。。the complete loan application and approval processes，for example，involve the use of a host of new technologies。。。 These new online banks will seek out，by way of big data，people who need loans rather than wait for applicants。There are endless possibilities。One thing is for sure：they will be among the lowest cost deposit takers and lenders。An app that runs on your smartphone takes care of all your banking and financial needs。