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It's easy to be dismissive, but the West has nothing like Alibaba: think Ebay for businesses selling to businesses. Which is why its IPO seems likely to top $2
by jpatokal 12y ago
It's easy to be dismissive, but the West has nothing like Alibaba: think Ebay for businesses selling to businesses. Which is why its IPO seems likely to top $20 billion.
- seanmcdirmid 12y agoAmazon at the consumer level is a more appropriate comparison.
- bd_at_rivenhill 12y agoWhy? I don't see sellers on Alibaba advertising the number of units that they can produce per month. Aliexpress is much more like ebay if you always filtered search with "buy it now" (except that the prices are generally lower and you have to deal with longer lead times). Amazon kills it with breadth of selection and fast delivery times; I haven't seen anything out of China that compares, but the Amazon prices are higher for comparable items.
- seanmcdirmid 12y agoAmazon acts as a storefront for many independent merchants, just like Taobao does. This mirrors the way my wife uses amazon and Taobao, but we find Amazon to be more reliable in quality. And then there is jd.com....