Around 10 years ago, when we talked about China, the things that popped up in my head were Panda, The Great wall and counterfeit goods. However, there are a number of things that have been added over the ten years and “ Alibaba ” or “ Jack Ma ” will be one of the very first words that come up whenever we talk about China.
What is Alibaba and who is Jack Ma? Let me tell you about his story…
Jack Ma who is the founder and chairman of Alibaba who is the richest man in China and his estimated net worth has topped $47 billion. He grew up in a poor family. After high school, he applied for university but he failed the entrance exam for twice. In the end, he could attain to go to Hangzhou Teacher’s Institute and then worked as an English teacher in his first job.
One day, he had a chance to use internet first time during a trip to the US. His first online search was “ beer ” and he was so surprised that there was no Chinese beer on the internet. At that time he decided to open an internet company in China. That was the beginning of the Alibaba.
Alibaba was founded in 1999 Jack Ma, who got $80,000 from 80 investors to start an online marketplace for Chinese companies.
After a trip to the US, Ma saw a potential for an internet search engine partner. he chooses Yahoo! Inc to be a partner with.
Yahoo paid $1 billion for a 40 percent stake in Alibaba in 2005. Alibaba’s Taobao Marketplace, which links individual buyers and sellers, and nd Tmall.com, wh, which connects retailers and consumers in China. The company earns money from 3 channels which are commissions on sales, through fees for memberships, advertising, and other services.
Yahoo paid $1 billion for a 40 percent stake in Alibaba in 2005. Alibaba’s Taobao Marketplace, which links individual buyers and sellers, and Tmall.com, which connects retailers and consumers in China. The company earns money from 3 channels which are commissions on sales, through fees for memberships, advertising, and other services.
When one of their direct competitor, eBay, made a foray into China in 2003, Alibaba countered by discounted merchants’ fees on Taobao. Finally, eBay closed its unprofitable China Web unit two years later.
The main Alibaba’s competitor can’t be anyone except Amazon which is the world’s leading online retailer. So let compare these two brand with their SWOT analysis.
Starting with Alibaba’s SWOT analysis
Amazon’s SWOT analysis
In my opinion, Because of Ma’s personality and tenacious attitude towards his life journey, Ma is probably one of the most enlightened entrepreneurs who thought beyond the tangible gains of his business imperatives. No matter how difficult problems is, He never gave up and I think that made Alibaba successful.
Digital Marketing Les Roches 上海中国 
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