Difference between revisions of "Alibaba"

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===Internet Messaging and Services===
 
===Internet Messaging and Services===
 
===Cloud Computing===
 
===Cloud Computing===
 +
Alibaba Cloud was founded in 2009 and is a subsidiary of the Alibaba Group.
 +
 
===Entertainment and Media===
 
===Entertainment and Media===
In 2016, Alibaba acquired the remaining stake of Youku Todou Inc, a Chinese-based video hosting platform, for $4.4 billion.<ref>Johnston, M. (2019). 10 Companies Owned by Alibaba. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/insights/10-companies-owned-alibaba/ ‌</ref>
+
In 2016, Alibaba acquired the remaining stake of Youku Todou Inc, a Chinese-based video hosting platform, for $4.4 billion.<ref>Johnston, M. (2019). 10 Companies Owned by Alibaba. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/insights/10-companies-owned-alibaba/ ‌</ref> As of December 17, the video hosting platform had an estimated 374 million monthly users according to QuestMobile figures (a China-based big data services provider).<ref>Davila, D. (2020). Youku Tudou vs. YouTube: A Financial Comparison (YOKU, GOOG). Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/insights/053016/youku-tudou-vs-youtube-financial-comparison-yoku-goog.asp</ref> In 2018, Alibaba's digital media and entertainment division experienced a 20% yearly growth in revenue since their purchase of Youku. Since 2018, Alibaba has not released figures about Youku's average daily subscriber growth.<ref>Davila, D. (2020). Youku Tudou vs. YouTube: A Financial Comparison (YOKU, GOOG). Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/insights/053016/youku-tudou-vs-youtube-financial-comparison-yoku-goog.asp</ref>
  
 
==Ethical Issues==
 
==Ethical Issues==

Revision as of 18:49, 11 February 2022

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Alibaba
Alibaba.png
Alibabahq.jpeg
"Alibaba Logo" Site
Type Technology company
Launch Date 1999
Status Active
Product Line E-commerce
Technology
Retail
Platform Cloud Service
Android Tablet
Android App
iOs App
Website www.alibaba.com/
A
libaba Group Holding Limited, or Alibaba,
is a Chinese multinational online ecommerce and technology company. Over the last year alone, Alibaba's online sites totaled $248 billion in transactions, making the website one of the fastest growing ecommerce stores.[1] Further, an estimated 80% of the Chinese online commerce markets is controlled by the Alibaba Group.[2] The website was founded in 1999 by Jack Ma and 17 others in Hangzhou, China. Since the platform was open to everyone who had access to the Internet, the founders' philosophy was that the website would allow smaller companies and technological innovation to thrive in global markets.[3] Alibaba, in addition to maintaining Alibaba.com, also owns taobao.com and tmall.com, both widely used online shopping stores by the Chinese customer base.[4] Alibaba makes the majority of its revenue through hosting advertisements on its websites.[5]

Alibaba ranks 23rd on Forbes' Global 2000 2021 list, and 11th on the same magazine's Top 100 Digital Companies 2019.[6] The Alibaba Group made an estimated $200 billion yuan in the 3rd quarter of 2021, equivalent to about $31 million in USD.[7] Although recently, Alibaba has hit a decline in terms of profit, with the adjusted amount for the month of November 2021 being 28.52 billion. This 39% decline in profit was the company's first in 22 quarters. [8]

The technology company has been at the center of multiple ethical concerns. Alibaba has a reputation for hosting numerous counterfeit sellers on their websites, with an estimated 70% of all counterfeit goods originating from China.[9] Because millions of Chinese workers produce large quantities of counterfeit goods, the Chinese government abstains from persecuting the counterfeiting issue. In 2021, the Chinese government took steps in regulating Alibaba by issuing a $2.8 billion fine for violating anti-monopoly regulations. In response, the Alibaba Group did not deny the accusation, and resolved to paying the $69 billion fine, 4% of Alibaba's total sales in 2019.[10] Most recently, the ecommerce company is under fire for sexual misconduct allegations after a female employee wrote an 11-page essay detailing her experiences with assault in the firm.[11]

History

The founder of Alibaba, Jack Ma, was born on September 10th, 1964.[12] Ma had originally wanted to become an English teacher, but after securing a teacher position and failing to attend Harvard University, he recognized a hole in the Chinese ecommerce market. Starting with $35 million, Jack and his group of 18 technological pioneers created Alibaba. Two years later, in December 2001, Alibaba.com surpassed 1 million registered users.[13] Eventually funded with more venture capital, the Alibaba Group added more websites to their roster like Taobao.com, Aliwangwang (a messaging application that made it easier to look up consumer goods), and Alipay. Later on in 2005, Alibaba was allowed to partner with the United States web service provider, Yahoo.[14] Since then, Jack Ma has stepped down as CEO of the group, as well as from his chairman position in 2019.[15] In his place, current CEO of the Alibaba Group, Daniel Zhang, will take his place as chairman. As recently as November 2019, the Alibaba Group was listed on the Main Board of Hong Kong's stock exchange.[16]


Website

The main website, Alibaba.com, presents a wide array of products available to buy in bulk, ranging from consumer electronics to food and beverages. Alibaba.com is a global business to business marketplace where buyers can contact sellers to purchase their desired goods. Because Alibaba.com is B2B facing, many buyers on the website are commonly wholesalers or manufacturers that are buying bulk materials and goods from other businesses.[17] Included in the website and available to sellers are tools used for global sourcing. One of these tools is automatic translation of messages on one's storefront. Buyers can send messages to a seller in one language, and the text of the return message will be automatically translated and sent back. The marketplace also has a currency conversion tools that functions similarly so consumers and suppliers do not have to manually calculate currency differences.[18]

Affiliated Companies

Internet Messaging and Services

Cloud Computing

Alibaba Cloud was founded in 2009 and is a subsidiary of the Alibaba Group.

Entertainment and Media

In 2016, Alibaba acquired the remaining stake of Youku Todou Inc, a Chinese-based video hosting platform, for $4.4 billion.[19] As of December 17, the video hosting platform had an estimated 374 million monthly users according to QuestMobile figures (a China-based big data services provider).[20] In 2018, Alibaba's digital media and entertainment division experienced a 20% yearly growth in revenue since their purchase of Youku. Since 2018, Alibaba has not released figures about Youku's average daily subscriber growth.[21]

Ethical Issues

Environmental Flaws

Alibaba and its logistics child company, Cainiao, have attempted to move towards environmentally friendly packaging techniques in the past, including using biodegradable plastics. Coming from the Western-targeted online magazine Sixth Tone in 2017, a toxics campaigner at Beijing's Greenpeace, Liu Hua, argued that the biodegradable plastics that Cainiao intended to roll out by 2020 would only biodegrade under specific circumstances.[22] The criteria involved in order for the packaging materials to biodegrade would lead to most of the packaging remaining in place in landfills. Cainiao's promotional material explained that the green materials will biodegrade in 180 days. Though, according to a researcher at the Rock Environment and Energy Institute in Beijing, Mao Da, the materials would only biodegrade in 180 days in a composting plant, of which are few in China.[23]

Sexual Assault and Harassment

In August 2021, Alibaba was hit with an 11-page document that explained how on a business trip, a female employee was forced to drink and then was sexually assaulted by her boss. The allegations were met with surprise by Alibaba employees, as around a third of Alibaba executives are women and because the company claims it has an efficient HR system which maintains staff identity along the values of Alibaba.[24] While the individual who was said to have committed the act was let go, there was no ongoing criminal case against him. In December 2021, an article came out on BBC that reported that the woman who had made the allegations was fired the month prior. In her termination letter, it said that she spread misinformation regarding the events of the business trip and about the steps the company took in response. Per the same article, the man who was accused of rape admitted that he had engaged in sexual activity with her while she was inebriated. While the Chinese government dropped the case, the man who allegedly sexually assaulted the Alibaba employee, Mr. Zhang, was placed under arrest by prosecutors.[25]

Counterfeit Goods

While Jack Ma has made it known that he is against the sale of counterfeit goods, the Alibaba Group has had numerous instances of exporting counterfeit products. Taobao, owned by Alibaba, was classified by the United States as a "notorious market," meaning that it is in strong violation of world IP, trademark, and copyright laws.[26] Craig Crosby, a publisher of The Counterfeit Report, disclosed that his firm removed 18 million cases of infringing goods and that Alibaba's counterfeit regulatory program is exceedingly arduous for rights holders to navigate and persecute.[27] Alibaba has also recently taken steps to mitigate some of the counterfeit luxury goods that are available on its website. Using an AI platform developed in the Alibaba Turing lab, the company is able to determine counterfeit logos of luxury goods in approximately 30-50 milliseconds, scanning from a database of 13.7 billion pictures.[28]

References

  1. WSJ.com News Graphics. (2019). What is Alibaba? The Wall Street Journal. https://graphics.wsj.com/alibaba/
  2. WSJ.com News Graphics. (2019). What is Alibaba? The Wall Street Journal. https://graphics.wsj.com/alibaba/
  3. Alibaba Group. (2019). Alibabagroup.com. https://www.alibabagroup.com/en/about/history
  4. Broad, M. (2014, September 14). What exactly is Alibaba? BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-29077495‌
  5. Broad, M. (2014, September 14). What exactly is Alibaba? BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-29077495
  6. Alibaba Group. (2021, May 13). Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/companies/alibaba-group/?sh=7da42ff619f5
  7. Alibaba Group Announces September Quarter 2021 Results. (2021, November 18). Finance.yahoo.com. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/alibaba-group-announces-september-quarter-112400052.html
  8. Qu, T. (2021, November 18). Alibaba sees first adjusted profit decline in five years. South China Morning Post. https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3156560/alibaba-net-income-plummets-87-cent-resulting-first-adjusted-profit
  9. Doggett, J. (2017, May 6). Why American Companies Can’t Trust Alibaba. Fortune. https://fortune.com/2017/05/06/alibaba-jack-ma-donald-trump-owner-group-china/
  10. Moore, E. (2021, April 10). China Fines Alibaba $2.8 Billion For Breaking Anti-Monopoly Law. NPR.org. https://www.npr.org/2021/04/10/986112628/china-fines-alibaba-2-8-billion-for-breaking-anti-monopoly-law
  11. Li, J. (2021, September 8). A rape allegation at Alibaba has prompted an outpouring in China about toxic work culture. Quartz. https://qz.com/2044385/alibaba-rape-allegation-prompts-reflection-on-toxic-work-culture/
  12. O’Connell, B. (2019, October 30). History of Alibaba: Timeline and Facts. TheStreet. https://www.thestreet.com/world/history-of-alibaba-15145103
  13. Alibaba Group. (n.d.). Www.alibabagroup.com. Retrieved January 28, 2022, from https://www.alibabagroup.com/en/about/history?year=2001
  14. O’Connell, B. (2019, October 30). History of Alibaba: Timeline and Facts. TheStreet. https://www.thestreet.com/world/history-of-alibaba-15145103
  15. Liberto, D. (2019, October 9). Jack Ma Steps Down As Alibaba Celebrates 20 Years. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/news/alibabas-jack-ma-step-down-year/
  16. Alibaba Group. (2019b). Alibabagroup.com. https://www.alibabagroup.com/en/about/history?year=2019
  17. How to buy and source from Alibaba. (2020, December 15). Alibaba.com Seller Central. https://seller.alibaba.com/businessblogs/px65f6s8-how-to-buy-and-source-from-alibaba‌
  18. How to buy and source from Alibaba. (2020, December 15). Alibaba.com Seller Central. https://seller.alibaba.com/businessblogs/px65f6s8-how-to-buy-and-source-from-alibaba‌
  19. Johnston, M. (2019). 10 Companies Owned by Alibaba. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/insights/10-companies-owned-alibaba/
  20. Davila, D. (2020). Youku Tudou vs. YouTube: A Financial Comparison (YOKU, GOOG). Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/insights/053016/youku-tudou-vs-youtube-financial-comparison-yoku-goog.asp
  21. Davila, D. (2020). Youku Tudou vs. YouTube: A Financial Comparison (YOKU, GOOG). Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/insights/053016/youku-tudou-vs-youtube-financial-comparison-yoku-goog.asp
  22. Wang Lianzhang. (2016). Environmentalists Criticize Alibaba’s “Green” Packaging. Sixth Tone. https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1001165/environmentalists-criticize-alibabas-green-packaging
  23. Wang Lianzhang. (2016). Environmentalists Criticize Alibaba’s “Green” Packaging. Sixth Tone. https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1001165/environmentalists-criticize-alibabas-green-packaging
  24. Chen, Y., & Mak, R. (2021, August 9). Alibaba’s #MeToo scandal is warning for China tech. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/breakingviews/alibabas-metoo-scandal-is-warning-china-tech-2021-08-09/
  25. Alibaba fires woman who claimed sexual assault. (2021, December 12). BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-59627131
  26. Shepard, W. (2018, January 26). Alibaba’s Taobao Is Once Again Branded A “Notorious Market” For Counterfeit Goods. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2018/01/26/if-beijing-listened-to-jack-ma-hed-be-going-to-jail/?sh=5e3d637249e3
  27. Shepard, W. (2018, January 26). Alibaba’s Taobao Is Once Again Branded A “Notorious Market” For Counterfeit Goods. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2018/01/26/if-beijing-listened-to-jack-ma-hed-be-going-to-jail/?sh=5e3d637249e3
  28. Alibaba’s AI platform recognizes counterfeit luxury products sold online amid booming industry in China - Global Times. (2021). Globaltimes.cn. https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202105/1223967.shtml?id=11

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