4 ms·

Wow, alibaba is actually a legit company? Every time it comes up in a google search, I take a few glances at it, and it just screams "spam, landing page" at me

by blhack 14y ago

Wow, alibaba is actually a legit company? Every time it comes up in a google search, I take a few glances at it, and it just screams "spam, landing page" at me. Odd. Has anybody here actually bought anything from them?

jmathai 14y ago
Alibaba is actually a huge player in China. Like eBay in its glory days but for a population many times larger.
lwat 14y ago
It's one of the biggest players in their market!
throwaway_87 14y ago
It's because you're not in Asia. And what you're seeing is probably a page geared toward B2B not B2C. Alibaba has been around a long time. They are most definitely a legit company. And a successful one.
culturestate 14y ago
For reference, here is a photo of Alibaba's HQ in Hangzhou [1]. In addition to the B2B part that others have discussed, they also own Taobao (the eBay of China) and Alipay (the PayPal of China). [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alibaba_group_Headquarters.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alibaba_group_Headquarters...
quink 14y ago
> Has anybody here actually bought anything from them? You don't really buy from Alibaba, you buy through Alibaba. The amount of money we've spent to the Alibaba owned TaoBao is getting very scary indeed. It's like eBay and Amazon combined, filled with a crappy ActiveX plugin (Alipay) to pay - usually combined with a security token from either of the four dozen or so big banks that one may be a member of - and any question you may have pre-sales answered. Or post-sales too. It's what eCommerce should be in the Western world. To say that TaoBao is the eBay of China is under-exaggerating things by about hundred-fold. And it's a shame no one in the Western world has heard of it. It's Alexa rank is... 14. And it's crazy to be assuming that Facebook is supposed to be worth $100 billion, but Alibaba just $35 billion. It should be the other way round. Also, if TaoBao ever decides to launch in the US, it's game over for eBay definitely and beyond any doubt. It might survive as an exclusively craigslist kind of thing. Amazon should be able to compete, but they will lose a lot of market share.
- jayp 14y ago
  I doubt it would be "game over for eBay". If that were the case, TaoBao would already be here. What other countries does TaoBao operate in? eBay and Amazon both operate in dozens on countries. What works only in China works there only for a reason! Government protectionism.
  - avstraliitski 14y ago
    As a 7 year China resident, I concur. It's protectionism and a gray legal system that create such beasts in China. They tend to be uninnovative, inefficient and slothful. Couple this with a questionable trajectory for the current Chinese domestic economic bubble, and my partner (a Chinese lawyer) and I have decided to leave the country. That said, the west isn't always much better.
  - tuananh 14y ago
    couldn't agree more.
  - quink 14y ago
    > If that were the case, TaoBao would already be here. eBay didn't even try to go into wholesale, because Alibaba already has that market, in the US, locked up tight. Like someone else said. Half the stuff in your house was brokered through Alibaba. > What works only in China works there only for a reason! Government protectionism. I think it has more to do with shipping being basically nothing and a willingness to do things both vertically and horizontally expansive.
chinatechus 14y ago
one year ago, alipay (part of alibaba group, something like paypal) said to have more than 2.6 billion rmb transactions a day; on 2011.11.11, taobao and tmall.com (both part of alibaba group, something like ebay/amazon) got more than 5 billion rmb transactions a day;
rickdangerous1 14y ago
Half the stuff in your house was brokered/bought over Alibaba.
creamyhorror 14y ago
The Alibaba site itself is basically a B2B supply portal (or "eBay for businesses/traders", if you prefer). Retails consumers have no need for it, but it's huge for businesses. And I think startups will find Alibaba's hold on such a lucrative market very hard to dislodge, even the ones that are Chinese born-and-bred.

by blhack 14y ago

jmathai 14y ago

Alibaba is actually a huge player in China. Like eBay in its glory days but for a population many times larger.

lwat 14y ago

It's one of the biggest players in their market!

throwaway_87 14y ago

It's because you're not in Asia. And what you're seeing is probably a page geared toward B2B not B2C. Alibaba has been around a long time. They are most definitely a legit company. And a successful one.

culturestate 14y ago

For reference, here is a photo of Alibaba's HQ in Hangzhou [1]. In addition to the B2B part that others have discussed, they also own Taobao (the eBay of China) and Alipay (the PayPal of China). [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alibaba_group_Headquarters.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alibaba_group_Headquarters...

quink 14y ago

> Has anybody here actually bought anything from them? You don't really buy from Alibaba, you buy through Alibaba. The amount of money we've spent to the Alibaba owned TaoBao is getting very scary indeed. It's like eBay and Amazon combined, filled with a crappy ActiveX plugin (Alipay) to pay - usually combined with a security token from either of the four dozen or so big banks that one may be a member of - and any question you may have pre-sales answered. Or post-sales too. It's what eCommerce should be in the Western world. To say that TaoBao is the eBay of China is under-exaggerating things by about hundred-fold. And it's a shame no one in the Western world has heard of it. It's Alexa rank is... 14. And it's crazy to be assuming that Facebook is supposed to be worth $100 billion, but Alibaba just $35 billion. It should be the other way round. Also, if TaoBao ever decides to launch in the US, it's game over for eBay definitely and beyond any doubt. It might survive as an exclusively craigslist kind of thing. Amazon should be able to compete, but they will lose a lot of market share.

jayp 14y ago
I doubt it would be "game over for eBay". If that were the case, TaoBao would already be here. What other countries does TaoBao operate in? eBay and Amazon both operate in dozens on countries. What works only in China works there only for a reason! Government protectionism.
- avstraliitski 14y ago
  As a 7 year China resident, I concur. It's protectionism and a gray legal system that create such beasts in China. They tend to be uninnovative, inefficient and slothful. Couple this with a questionable trajectory for the current Chinese domestic economic bubble, and my partner (a Chinese lawyer) and I have decided to leave the country. That said, the west isn't always much better.
- tuananh 14y ago
  couldn't agree more.
- quink 14y ago
  > If that were the case, TaoBao would already be here. eBay didn't even try to go into wholesale, because Alibaba already has that market, in the US, locked up tight. Like someone else said. Half the stuff in your house was brokered through Alibaba. > What works only in China works there only for a reason! Government protectionism. I think it has more to do with shipping being basically nothing and a willingness to do things both vertically and horizontally expansive.

chinatechus 14y ago

one year ago, alipay (part of alibaba group, something like paypal) said to have more than 2.6 billion rmb transactions a day; on 2011.11.11, taobao and tmall.com (both part of alibaba group, something like ebay/amazon) got more than 5 billion rmb transactions a day;

rickdangerous1 14y ago

Half the stuff in your house was brokered/bought over Alibaba.

creamyhorror 14y ago

The Alibaba site itself is basically a B2B supply portal (or "eBay for businesses/traders", if you prefer). Retails consumers have no need for it, but it's huge for businesses. And I think startups will find Alibaba's hold on such a lucrative market very hard to dislodge, even the ones that are Chinese born-and-bred.