Alibaba’s Four Business Blocks: Mapping a US$600 Billion Empire

Alibaba Group—still evolving—is an empire worth more than US$600 billion. It may be China’s most influential company, with no equal. (Still subject to the Communist Party’s wishes: ‘What the emperor does not give, you cannot take...’) Alibaba currently has four main blocks. Block one: core commerce, comprising four parts: China Commerce Retail: Taobao, Tmall, Juhuasuan, Rural Taobao, Alimama, Tmall Global, and others. China Commerce Wholesale: the B2B business previously listed in Hong Kong, also called 1688.com. International Commerce Retail: AliExpress, launched in April 2010, is essentially an international Taobao. The other component is Southeast Asia’s largest e-commerce business, Lazada, acquired in April 2016. Alibaba bought 54% at a valuation around US$1 billion. Covering Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and elsewhere, Lazada is now wholly owned. International Commerce Wholesale: international B2B operations. Core commerce is therefore a 2×2 matrix: domestic plus international, retail plus wholesale. It forms Alibaba’s central business. Block two: cloud computing The global market follows a ‘3A1G’ pattern: AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and AliCloud. AliCloud has the largest share in China and Asia-Pacific. Block three: digital media and entertainment Alibaba’s broad entertainment portfolio includes Youku Tudou, UC, Alibaba Sports, Alibaba Music, Tmall TV, and Shuqi e-books. Block four: innovation and other businesses New and experimental operations include Amap, Alibaba’s YunOS, and DingTalk enterprise software. ----- Alibaba continues expanding its territory. It holds roughly 10% of Didi Chuxing, versus Tencent’s approximately 11.4%. It owns around 20% of Suning, with a possible full merger. It wholly acquired Ele.me to compete with Wang Xing’s Meituan. It acquired more than 70% of Intime Retail. Cainiao’s logistics platform covers 224 countries and territories and 2,800 Chinese cities and counties. Roughly 70% of Chinese express parcels pass through its data channels. Media content and SaaS services continue developing too. ---- Starting tomorrow: Jack Ma, Alibaba’s development, capital connections, and the small player challenging a giant—eBay.