alibaba

please help

[skhan]

Hi All

Am new to the boards here - but have been browsing for a while now. Am a student and have an exam coming up in May based on this case study on Alibaba. [knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu...]
Based on this case study and additonal research i carry out - i have to cover the following areas:
•Strategy/business model
•Innovation
•Competitive strengths and weaknesses
•New ventures
All relating to alibaba. I do have some ideas relating to this areas but would like additional feedback.
The people on this board seem to have a very good understanding of issues relating to alibaba and i would really appreciate any feedback that is provided.

[bill]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld skhan.

Thanks for posting that article about Alibaba. It was an interesting read.

Although we can't do your homework for you, feel free to post some of your ideas and findings here. I'm sure you'll find some people interested in this topic.

I do have some ideas relating to this areas but would like additional feedback.

What were your specific ideas?

We do have a few threads referencing Alibaba [google.com] so do take a look through those to see if you can glean any useful info from there.

[redstorm]

My suggestion is: try to login in alibaba and you will know it better.
When you speak of alibaba, do you include its branches as www.taobao.com, yahoo china?
i use alibaba as early as 2000, i think it is a good website yesterday and today; i hope it will be as good tomorrow.
you can also try to contact the public relation department of Alibaba for more information.

[skhan]

Thanks for the reply, i do have some ideas which i will share on the stated areas
•Strategy/business model their main strategy i feel all along has been
•Innovation
•Competitive strengths and weaknesses
•New ventures

• Strategy
how it does business i.e with alibaba operating in three sites with details of these and how it goes about doing business like charging annual fees. theres an article i found with ma quoted as saying his strategy is simple as follows 'We win e-Bay, buy Yahoo! and stop Google. That is for fun. Competition is for fun.'. This clealry states he is prepared to do anything it takes to beat google.

• Innovation having three different sites allows it to be very innovative in terms of who and what it can supply. how chinease maufacturers can now reach world exportes and vice versa because of alibaba innovative idea. people can list there products wherever they fell they can gain good revenue.

• Competitive strengths and weaknesses regarding this its safe to say that strengths include stuff such as language and cultire, expertise, experience, government control. while regarding weaknesses its current business model is quite unclear, the business is open to fraud just like other e-commerce businesses.
Another One of the problems Alibaba faces is its horizontal quality. It is involved in too many sectors, and it loses the ability to adapt to them the way a vertical portal such as Moddo in Spain adapts in the footwear sector. Moddo offers services that are very close to the companies in its sector, and delivers much greater added value than Alibaba does. As a result, it has a more complete revenue model. For that reason, I think it will be easier for vertical global markets to achieve success than for markets that are more horizontal.

• New ventures
- the big one i feel has been the inclusion of yahoo into its opeating and control of yahoo china - Yahoo has opened up many channels such as the search engine and msn messanger service. Not only this alibaba has also aquired Avaya Contact Center Solution which can improve its customer relations in many ways.

These are some of the ideas that i have, i am not asking for members here to do my homework, but it is part of the preparation to gain ideas from literature - which does include the ideas, views of people. I would very much appreciate it if anyone can help with any of the areas that i have stated - and fill out any clear gaps that i am missing.

Thanks again

[edit_g]

What course are you doing? That sounds like a decent assignment!

[skhan]

Am studying BSC business computing, in my final year. Like i mentioned before i have a exam in a few weeeks for which i can take in 4pages of prepared notes inside with me. Like i said the areas i have to cover i have already mentioned. I would really like more feedback, so please if you can share your views.

[riverho]

His strategy is actually developing China eCommerce. He once said in SES about the position of Yahoo!. He positions Y! as one of his tool - search engine. It fills up the gap of what his kingdom missing. So, everything he builds is only for one goal: Improve China eCommerce Market. He dedictes himself as a frontier of China.

[skhan]

Thanks riverho, thats some valuable information. Do you possible have any links to further more detailed information of this nature and what is that you regard as Alibaba strengths and weaknesses?

Thanks Again