Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Alibaba Goes Public—And Achieves More Than 100 Million Shares Trades In The First 20 Minutes

While you may not have yet heard of the Chinese based Alibaba.com—that is soon to change. Alibaba when public on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, September 19, 2014—and achieved over 100 million share trades within the first 20 minutes—but who is Alibaba?
Alibaba was founded 15 years ago by Jack Ma, with his wife, 15 friends and $60,000. What began as an ecommerce website to sell goods fairly locally—has grown into the largest ecommerce site in the world.

Larger Than Amazon And eBay Combined Alibaba is larger than both Amazon and eBay combined, and unlike the two more recognizable names (at least stateside) Alibaba has one global ecommerce site.
The company’s mission is to “Make It Easy To Do Business Anywhere.” They do this a wide range of ways:
• Having one global ecommerce site that serves Europe, Asia, South America, North America, and Canada.
• Allowing retailers to IM with buyers in real time.
• Offering a wide range of payment processing options to ensure transactions can be processed in a variety of countries.
• Selling everything—from single items, bulk orders, digital videos, Cloud-based products, mobile search projects, and even items as large as farming equipment.

Easy Access To Global Manufacturing For Retailers And Businesses
Being a Chinese based company, one of the many advantages retailers around the globe can enjoy—is access to the wide-array of products manufactured in China - as you can see in the attached infographic is courtesy of Vexor CWT. China has long been a leading provider of cost-effective manufacturing, but it is often difficult for smaller retailers to access the minimum order requirements of many major distributers. By buying directly from the manufacture, or smaller Chinese distributers—retailers and businesses may still be subject to minimum order requirements, but ones that are much easier to access.

Easy Access To Everything Global Consumers Desire
While most ecommerce websites sell only a genre of products, Alibaba sells it all. Their categories are expansive, and include just about anything you can imagine. This allows consumers from around the globe to buy from independent artists, designers, and manufactures alike. Alibaba has a passion tech, digital, and mobile—and offers their consumers access to a wide range of electronic-only products too. With retailers in over 190 countries, 2 million seller storefronts, and 45 million members—even if you have not yet made a purchase on Alibaba, odds are you will in the near future.
Going Public Changes Everything, Or Does It?
Alibaba was built upon a unique company culture centered on integrity, team work, and quality. While the culture within many companies changes once they go public, this was simply a strategic move to capture global attention—and to secure their spot as the world’s largest ecommerce website. Founder Jack Ma is committed to maintaining the same values, principals, and company culture that led Alibaba down their path to success—including their pastime of nicknaming employees after fictional martial arts warriors.

Something For Everyone
Whether you are looking for a new investment opportunity, to access global product manufacturing, for a new range of products for your business, to expand your business to a global market—or simply for some unique gifts for friends and family—Alibaba has something for everyone.
While Alibaba may still be a new name to many, their stellar performance on their first day of the Stock Exchange—now has them on a global radar.