Alibaba Company Analysis

Running head: GROUP ANALYSIS ON ALIBABA 1
March 5, 2020
Business 100-Investors
The University of Fraser Valley India
Goswami Ganesh Dutta S.D. College Sector 32-C
Chandigarh 160030, India
Dear Business 100 Investors,

This report is created in request from you, to study the investment potential of Alibaba
Group Holding Limited leading e-commerce company. Our team researched an in-depth analysis
of Alibaba which will guide investors in their judgment of investing in Alibaba.
We have gathered information about Alibaba from the company, and studying industry
profiles from different sources and compiled the information in an investor-friendly structure to
provide a much better understanding of what Alibaba's current market situation is and what future
potential the company has.
We have analyzed Alibaba's performance from the past three years 2017, 2018, and 2019.
Which will allow investors to understand how company performance is improving or degrading
through years and outlook for 2020.
Our structured report will guide you through key information like whether Alibaba is
leading in its field, its monthly active users, the marketing strategy adopted by the company. Our
consulting team has also created a well defined organizational structure of Alibaba that will help
investors understand the decision processing of Alibaba.
Tegridy consultancy company endeavors to provide well structured and organized to help
your decision in investing in the e-commerce industry. We hope this report provides you every bit
of information you seek for your investment decision.
Sincerely,
Tegridy Consulting Company
GROUP ANALYSIS ON ALIBABA Page 2
FRASER VALLEY INDIA
COMPANY OVERVIEW & COMPANY SITUATION ANALYSIS
BUS-100 Author(s) Nitish Jaswal (300181850),
INTERIM SUBMISSION 1 Tejas Sharma (300181983)
Prachee Sehgal Deepkanwal Singh (300181953)
Pranav Chopra (300182058)

Executive Summary
Alibaba Group is a Chinese multinational holding company, we have provided the
company overview with key facts figure which will provide data about where the company is
situated its head office, its ticker symbol, the company website, and the company logo. The
company overview also contains a brief of a recent event that explains how Alibaba is utilizing
technology to become more globalized.
Furthermore, we analyzed the company situation by doing the SWOT and PESTEL
analysis of Alibaba which allows us to understand both internal and external factors affecting the
company situation like the company is situated in China which is a communist party led country
which affects the decision making of Alibaba in compliance with the Chinese laws. Further such
factors as if Alibaba is leading in technology in the industry will affect the growth of the company
to increase the customer base. Further weaknesses like the decline in operational performance
could lead to critical issues and threats for Alibaba.
Our consulting team has researched Alibaba's mission, vision, and values which let
investors understand Alibaba's long term goals and objectives for accomplishing the company
mission. Alibaba’s leadership has set the vision for the company to last 102 years. Further Culture
of the company defines how operational performance of the company doing, for Alibaba to become
the more globalized company they had to make their work culture more diverse.
Although the company is moving toward more automation and identifying the digital
economy potential. The company has invested a lot in research and development promoting the
innovation initiative in the company.
The board of directors has some independent directors and the founder of the Alibaba Jack
Yun ma who was former CEO of the company is now executive chairman. Further, the company
CEO Daniel Yong Zhang has also shown a positive and different leadership style which we have
provided in the CEO section of the report.
Furthermore, we have provided the investors with the financial performance of Alibaba
from the year 2017 to 2019 with a figure containing key ratios and data such as final quarterly
revenue, assets, liability and shareholder equity. Analyzing and observing the financial trends of
Alibaba overall we forecast a positive development in Alibaba's financial position.
In summary, after studying the Alibaba position and global trend for a positive outlook for
the digital economy and e-commerce we would encourage the investors to invest in Alibaba; as
the company has shown a stable behavior in growth even in a crisis like Hong Kong protests, the
US-China trade war and the coronavirus pandemic. Further, the significant investment in research
and development will help Alibaba to become a leader in the e-commerce industry.
Table of Contents
Executive Summary ............................................................................................................ 3
Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 8
COMPANY OVERVIEW ........................................................................................................... 9
COMPANY SITUATION ................................................................................................ 11
PESTEL ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................ 11
POLITICAL .............................................................................................................. 12
ECONOMIC ............................................................................................................. 12
SOCIAL .................................................................................................................... 12
TECHNOLOGICAL ................................................................................................. 13
ENVIRONMENTAL ................................................................................................ 13
LEGAL ..................................................................................................................... 13
SWOT ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................... 14
STRENGTH .............................................................................................................. 14
WEAKNESS ............................................................................................................. 15
OPPORTUNITY ....................................................................................................... 15
THREATS................................................................................................................. 16
CRITICAL ISSUES .................................................................................................................. 16
Strategic Direction ..................................................................................................................... 17
Mission, Vision, and Values ..................................................................................... 18
Objectives ................................................................................................................. 19
Organizational Structure ............................................................................................................ 21
Company Culture ...................................................................................................... 23
Board of Directors..................................................................................................... 23
CEO........................................................................................................................... 24
Financial Performance ............................................................................................................... 25
Comparative Analysis ............................................................................................... 28
Marketing Strategy............................................................................................................ 31
Target Market............................................................................................................ 31
Product Strategy ........................................................................................................ 33
Pricing Strategy......................................................................................................... 34
Promotion Strategy ................................................................................................... 34
Distribution Strategy ................................................................................................. 35
Company Position ..................................................................................................... 35
Company Outlook ..................................................................................................................... 36
Recommendation ....................................................................................................................... 37
Appendix ........................................................................................................................... 39
Appendix A: Board of Directors ............................................................................................... 39
Board Members ......................................................................................................................... 39
Occupation/Industry .................................................................................................................. 39
Appendix B: Businesses List ..................................................................................................... 40
REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 41
List of Figures
Figure 1:Key Facts .......................................................................................................................... 9
Figure 2: PESTEL ANALYSIS .................................................................................................... 11
Figure 3:SWOT ANALYSIS ........................................................................................................ 14
Figure 4:Organizational Structure................................................................................................. 22
Figure 5: CEO Compensation ....................................................................................................... 24
Figure 6:Alibaba 2017, 2018& 2019 Financial Performance ....................................................... 26
Figure 7: Alibaba, Amazon & eBay 2019 Financial Performance ............................................... 28
Figure 8: Board of Directors ......................................................................................................... 39
Figure 9:Alibaba Service .............................................................................................................. 40

Introduction
Alibaba group As it is requisition from you, the investor, Tegrity has composed the
following report to explicate the positive and negative of Alibaba group as a company and its
investment potential. This document is meant to supply you with all the necessary information to
you before you make an investment decision, as well as furnish you with our proposal on whether
or to not to invest in Alibaba group
Our survey was created using diverse resources including the company’s website and financial
documents as well as sources that have an outside point of view of the company. This information
allows us to access and analyze how the company sees itself and how they believe they are
performing, it also allowed us to follow the hypercritical manner of trends to see how Alibaba is
performing in comparison to other e-commerce industries.
For each category that this Broadcast covers our consulting team highlighted all the
information related to the section of the report followed by an analysis of each section to determine
how they found information affects or has affected the organization. Our analyses supply the
crucial information needed to form our recommendation for your investment decision.
This report contains a quantum of information from different areas including who the
company is, how the organization trend affects the firm, as well as the area that covers the
company’s financial performance and their market strategy our analysis will not provide a long
history of Alibaba group. However, it will only cover the information that is related to your
question as an investment decision today. The following categories provide a brief overview of
the Alibaba group as a company and also provides significant information to help you in making
an investment decision
COMPANY OVERVIEW
Company overview provides an all-inclusive understanding of Alibaba’s brief history,
financial highlights, and current events happening in the company that could affect investment
growth as per policies and vision adopted by the organization.
Alibaba Group is a Chinese multinational holding company with businesses in mobile
commerce, global retail market, utility services, tech companies, and entertainment
(Alibaba, 2020a). Jack Ma (co-founder of Alibaba) drove a team of 18 people and established
Alibaba in 1999 (Alibaba, 2020b). Alibaba is also the world's most valuable non-US retail brand
(Yuen, 2019).
Head Office a.) Alibaba Group Holding Limited

969 West Wen Yi Road
Hangzhou
Zhejiang
CHN
Phone b.) (+86) 571-8502-2088
Website c.) www.alibabagroup.com
Revenue CYN (million) d.) 376,844.0
Revenue USD (million) e.) 56,971.2
Financial year-end f.) March

NYSE Ticker g.) BABA
Logo
Figure 1:Key Facts
(a
Alibaba (2020). b Alibaba (2020), c Alibaba(2020), d Marketline(2019), e Marketline(2019), f
Marketline(2019), g Alibaba(2020))
On the financial ground, the September quarter 2019 financial highlights of the Alibaba group
have shown:
o Growth of 40% with an investment of US$ 4.5 Bn EBITA (Earnings Before Interest Tax
Amortization) (Alibaba, 2019a, November 1, pg.4).
o The Alibaba Group also confirmed in their quarterly report that they have 785 MM monthly active
users (MAUs) (Alibaba, 2019b, November 1, pg.4).
o 693 MM annual active consumers (Alibaba, 2019c, November 1, pg.4).
o 1.5 billion product listing (Alibaba Ltd, 2019d, November 1, pg.4).
Alibaba is also expanding into the African market, recently Alibaba group and government
of Ethiopia Signed Agreements to Establish EWTP (Electronic World Trade Platform) Hub in
Ethiopia (Alibaba, 2019, November 25). The company vision is to increase cross border trade with
smart logistics like e-commerce and fulfillment services to assist Ethiopia’s small and medium-
sized enterprise to reach markets of China and the world (Alibaba, 2019, November 25).
Besides from e-commerce, the company has structured and focused on their research and
development (MarketLine, 2019, September 27), in utility services as Alibaba cloud one of
Alibaba’s business have shown 64% revenue growth and innovative initiatives shown to increase
in revenue by 14% (Alibaba, 2019, November 1) indicating the company has planned their
research and development according to the changing economies.
The Alibaba has also focused on fin-tech (financial technology) to help economies become
digitalized, for this Alibaba has announced a comprehensive strategic partnership with Ant
Financial and ICBC (Industrial and The Commercial Bank of China) for improving and
establishing fin-tech services(Alibaba,2019). Chen Signing (Chairman of The Alibaba Group) said,
“We hope to generate more chemistry to promote innovations in the Chinese finance industry and
further improve the quality of financial services in the coming future” (Davos,2019).
Furthermore, the increasing popularity and application of web-based tools into modern
businesses with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning identifying such opportunities could
interest many investors. CEO Daniel Zhang said “Our digital economy continues to thrive and
prosper” (2020). Further, he added, “Alibaba aims to have over one billion annual active
consumers and before 2025 help merchants achieve over RMB10 trillion in annual merchandise
volume” (Zhang, 2020) that indicates the predictable increase in future revenue and investment
growth.
COMPANY SITUATION
PESTEL ANALYSIS
Political Economic
o China is a Communist party-led state o Subsidized innovation and

o US-China trade war and increase of entrepreneurship
15% on tariffs of Chinese Imports o 2014 fiscal reforms.
Social Technological
o Commercialization of AI and Cloud
o 16 years legacy of historical brand
computing
value
o Concept of Digital economy
o Culture of entrepreneurship
o Fine-Tech innovation
Environmental Legal
o “Green Packaging” initiative o New China and US e-commerce laws
o “Green Warehouse” initiative o Government action against
o Reduction by 15% in the material counterfeiting and IPO warning for
used in packaging 250 million dollars.
Figure 2: PESTEL ANALYSIS
POLITICAL
Alibaba has a lot of political influence on itself as China is a communist party-led state and
Chinese leadership always tends to adjust the policies to maintain the dominant role of the
government in the economy (WorldFactBook,2020 February 5). With Xi Jinping re-elected as
president in 2018, he emphasized on economic growth, as reported by New Yorker he said:
“ continual growth, continual development, continual innovation, and technological breakthroughs
are, according to him, important components of this great revival of China ”(Newyorker, Chotiner,
para.3, 2019, May 22); however, with the ongoing trade war with the USA, Alibaba will have a
hard time entering the US markets with increased tariffs, restrictions, and the presence of
competitors like the Amazon.
ECONOMIC
On Economical ground China planned to subsidize innovation and promoting domestic
consumption to make the economy less dependent on government investment
(WorldFactBook,2020, February 5); however, Chinese leader’s pledge in 2010 to double China’s
GDP in 2020, but it didn’t seem to be much optimistic, as the GDP growth graph has shown a
downward slope since 2010 (WorldFactBook,2020, February 5). Furthermore, to deal with it in
2014 Chinese government introduced fiscal reforms to overhaul the subnational debt
(WorldFactBook,2020, February 5).
SOCIAL
Alibaba has always played a crucial role in China’s struggle in economic growth, as 16
years ago Alibaba launched its platform to help millions of Chinese sellers looking for a medium
to sell because of which Alibaba has become a brand most preferred by Chinese small and medium
enterprises(WorldFactBook, 2020, February 5). Observing Chinese business ownership of state
contrary to the business owned by people through the years we can say how entrepreneurship has
flourished among Chinese people. Even during the Hong Kong protests, Alibaba raised $11.2
billion which shows even in an imbalanced political situation people were taking part in
commercial activities (Stevenson, 2019, November 25, para.2).
TECHNOLOGICAL
Alibaba is also leading the world toward commercialization of AI (artificial intelligence)
and cloud computing technologies to provide data, analytics and data visualization to big
organizations, currently Alibaba has 46 organizations as a customer for their cloud computing
platform(Featured Customers, 2020, February 8). Furthermore, the advancement in the machine
learning algorithms have made storing large data more applicable and have also dropped the cost
of storing it; besides, Alibaba is also providing Fin-tech (financial technology) with Ant financial
and ICBC (The Industrial and Commercial bank of China) (Alibaba, 2019).
ENVIRONMENTAL
Alibaba has also promoted the environment-friendly logistics like environment-friendly
packaging, that uses biodegradable courier bags, plastic-free boxes and packages recycling bins,
and warehouses, which run completely on solar energy(Alibaba,2020). Alibaba baba’s Cainiao
network created a packaging algorithm to optimize and reduce the material used in packaging by
15% and was implemented in the packaging of 250 million delivery boxes and courier bags in
2018 (Alibaba,2020).
LEGAL
However, the new counterfeiting laws are giving Alibaba a hard time, Reuters reported:
“Alibaba to pay $250 million to settle a lawsuit over the pre-IPO warning on counterfeiting”(2019,
April 29). The lawsuit was filed against Alibaba back on July 16, 2014, for failing to disclose
security frauds, the further Chinese and US government has introduced new E-commerce laws to
prevent counterfeiting and fraud on the online platform; however, for big platforms like Alibaba,
it won't be a much of a struggle.
SWOT ANALYSIS
Strength’s Weakness
o Focus On Research &

o A Decline in Operational
Development(R&D)
Performance
o Leading in innovation
Opportunities Threat’s
o Sellers Compliance with Tax
o Positive viewpoint for the
Collection on Alibaba's platform.
worldwide online retail market
o Intense competition
Figure 3:SWOT ANALYSIS
STRENGTH
Focus On Research & Development(R&D)
Alibaba is focusing on putting resources into new innovation with a vision of moving
toward automation and optimization of the underlying processes (MarketLine, 2019, September
27). In FY2019, the organization contributed CNY17,060 million on R&D exercises for product
development (MarketLine, 2019, September 27). As of March 31, 2019, Alibaba had 12,321 patent
applications and 5,536 issued patents in China (MarketLine, 2019, September 27). The company
also publicly filed 9,163 patents in different countries and had 2,874 issued patents globally
(MarketLine, 2019, September 27). Alibaba’s focus on R&D will enable, the company to be in a
better position according to changing economies and will make it a leader in the yet developing
field of Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning against its competitors like the Amazon.
WEAKNESS
A Decline in Operational Performance
The Alibaba displayed a gradual decline in operational performance during the audit year.
The company’s operating margin decreased from 26.9% in the fiscal Year 2018 to 15.1% in the
fiscal Year 2019 (MarketLine, 2019, September 27). The Feeble work execution shows the
absence of effectiveness in cost management. Its operation expenses increased from 73% in the
fiscal year 2018 to 84.8% in the fiscal year 2019 (MarketLine, 2019, September 27). Furthermore,
the organization's net overall revenue plummeted from 25.6% in the fiscal year 2018 to 23.2% in
the fiscal year 2019 (MarketLine, 2019, September 27). Ineffective operational performance could
critique the organization's ability to pursue growth and development plans.
OPPORTUNITY
Positive viewpoint for the worldwide online retail market
Alibaba has myriad opportunities in different sectors like forming new contracts and
agreements, the Cloud computing market, and global strategic expansions. The online platforms
are developing at a quick pace lately and becoming the most favored channel for different activities
among consumers over the globe. It could empower the Alibaba to extend its business opportunity
around the world. Indicated by an in-house report, the worldwide online retail market was valued
at US$929.8 billion in 2017 and is continued to develop at a CAGR(Compound Annual Growth
Rate) of 13.4% during 2017-22 to reach US$ 1,740.8 billion before 2022 (MarketLine, 2019,
September 27).
THREATS
Sellers Compliance with Tax Collection on Alibaba's platform
Tax collection is also an important aspect for Alibaba for maintaining the legal aspect of
the company as E-commerce in China is developing and the Chinese government need platforms
like Alibaba to work with them to ease the process of tax collection because of which Alibaba has
to make strict policies and implement in proportion to the revenue generated by the operators on
the Alibaba’s platform and this could, in turn, develop into a bad customer experience situation.
There could be instances for like some sole-proprietors didn’t fulfill the tax requirement and are
operating on Taobao which could affect Alibaba’s integrity (Alibaba’s e-commerce website).
Intense competition
With many competitors like the Amazon, eBay, Baidu, Tencent and more, Alibaba has to
compete to attract buyers. Alibaba also has to compete to get sellers based on the size and
engagement of buyers. If Alibaba is unable to compete effectively it could reduce its
MAUs(monthly active users) which in return could hinder Alibaba’s business's financial condition.
CRITICAL ISSUES
The SWOT and PESTEL allow us to understand some of the critical issues Alibaba is
facing like the decline in the operational performance and the US-China trade war which is making
it a hardship for the Alibaba to get into the US market in 2020 where small and medium enterprises
are much significant for western expansion. President Donald Trump increased the Chinese goods
tariff to 30%(Rappeport, Bradsher, 2019, August 23) by accusing China to not meet the standards
of a trade deal due to which Alibaba reported a 51% growth in the March quarter, which was the
slowest since 2016(Zhong, 2019, May 15).

Alibaba also has to deal with the intense competition in the Asian market with many offline
retailers with some brand value are going to create a lot of traffic, so it will be critical for Alibaba
to engage with its customers. Besides, Alibaba mainly has its customer base in China only because
of which the Chinese government tends to keep its dominance on Alibaba and its affiliates.
To deal with such issue Alibaba has to keep expanding its R&D to become a leader in the
technological field for attracting western customers. As Alibaba cannot completely remove the
Chinese government's influence they could make their organization more decentralized and
globalized.
Strategic Direction
Strategic direction signifies the plans and initiative company set toward achieving the
vision for the company. By studying the Alibaba’s mission for prospect and what vision they have
for its platforms, and what values Alibaba has in its organizational culture. The strategic direction
will also mention what objectives Alibaba is set to accomplish the vision or mission, they have for
the future of the company.
Alibaba with its mission for making it easy to trade anywhere around the world for small
and medium-sized enterprises by use of smart logistics and technology(Alibaba, 2020a).
Furthermore, Alibaba is an example of “tomorrow's smart business” and with that perspective,
Alibaba’s leadership is investing 21.85 billion dollars in research and development(Bridgwater,
2020, Jan 9).
Alibaba acknowledges the potential of the digital economy and the future market of
consumers owing to which they have set their strategic direction to innovate company processes
to outreach every potential customer, as Daniel Zhang said, “ We have to reinvent retail before
someone else does”(Elstrom, Chen, 2019, Sep 9).

Mission, Vision, and Values
Alibaba's vision is to revolutionize and develop infrastructure for commerce. The company
believes that “ the customer should meet, work, live, and breathe at Alibaba”(Alibaba,2020).
Alibaba aspires to be a company that will last 102 years(Alibaba, 2019a, Dec 6, p.g.1).
Furthermore, the company has set up its vision for 2036 to be serving 2 billion consumers globally,
empower 10 million businesses and created at least 100 million jobs(Alibaba, 2019b, Dec 6, p.g.1).
Alibaba’s mission focuses on creating its platform on the idea of commercial and social
interaction among its consumers and merchants by developing new innovative technology to push
the world toward a more digitalized economy(Alibaba, 2019c, Dec 6, p.g.1). The company also
have set the mission for expansion in international markets through the different categories of
business sectors like cloud computing, digital media, and entertainment, research, and
development(Alibaba, 2019d, Dec 6, p.g.1).
Alibaba has mentioned six core values for its company which are “ Customers first,
employees second, shareholders third ”, “Trust makes everything simple”, “Change is the only
constant”, “Today’s best performance is tomorrow’s baseline”, “If not now, when? if not me,
who?”, “Live seriously, work happily”(Alibaba,2020a). The company believes that only by
encouraging the creation of customer values only then the employees can grow and shareholders
gain long term profits. Furthermore, the company has put stress on the values of trust-building and
keeping up to the changing market of the world(Alibaba, 2019e, Dec 6, p.g.2).
The company wants to reflect shared values among its customers so that it could push
toward its mission of becoming a more globalized and diverse organization and outreach, the new
potential of the digitalized economy through big data analytics(Alibaba, 2019f, Dec 6, p.g.2). By
studying the example of a new merchant website launched by Alibaba for Tmall which doubled
the number of brands it previously had to 40,000 (Chen, 2019, June 26); we could observe how
Alibaba is approaching toward its mission of reaching its potential customers and innovating the
underlying processes.
Objectives
Alibaba has set four major objectives for them which include extending mobile commerce,
increase active buyers in China and globally, expand the offering, and increase cross- border e-
commerce. Alibaba has set its five-year objective to achieve 1 billion annual active users and has
over RMB 10 trillion sales until the year 2036(Alibaba,2019, Dec 6) which CEO Mr. Daniel Zhang
mentioned in CEO’s letter to investors.
The company is following a three-pillar model to pursue their objective of 2036, this
includes globalization, domestic consumption, and data collection through technologies like cloud
computing. Alibaba is realizing the potential of the digital economy in myriad sectors like
agriculture, manufacturing, and services(Alibaba, 2019a, Dec 6, p.g.2).
Alibaba believes that the fusion of digital technology and commerce will create a
substantial amount of opportunities for small and medium enterprises that will not be limited by
borders. Alibaba is applying the approach of “go-to-market” which means “Global Buy, Global
Sell, Global Pay, Global Delivery and Global Fun” for the development of the digitalized
economy(Alibaba, 2019b, p.g. 2).
Alibaba currently has 785 million monthly active users with China’s urbanization and the
young generation having technological knowledge will emerge as a huge middle-class consumer
market(Alibaba, 2019c, Dec 6, p.g.2). The company is acknowledging such trends and developing
new innovative logistics with the help of big data and cloud computing(Alibaba, 2019d, Dec 6,
p.g.2).
CEO Daniel Zhang has called big data and cloud computing the fuel and engine of the
digital economy(Alibaba, 2019e, Dec 6), Alibaba also mentioned that “We believe that in the era
of the digital economy, productivity will be defined by computing power”(Alibaba, 2019f, Dec 6,
p.g.2). The fast and uniform flow of data is a vital aspect of today's competitive market Alibaba
has set objectives to develop Alibaba’s business operating system and develop their capabilities in
cloud computing, intelligent logistics, financial technology, and digital commerce.

Organizational Structure
The organization structure is a vital factor in the prospect and success of the company.
Alibaba’s organizational structure is planned in such a way that the board of directors governs all
the operations(Alibaba, 2020a). Alibaba organization structure has a three-level with the board,
senior management, and Junior management(Alibaba, 2020b).
Overall, the company is led by the “Iron Triangle” of Jack ma (founder and chairmen). The
Iron Triangle strategy consists of three key term commerce, logistics, and finance, with commerce
consisting of the network of various Alibaba platforms it operates, like Taobao and Tmall.
Logistics refers to the product quality and delivery systems implemented(Passport, 2017a, July,
p.g. 32). Finance refers to Alibaba's customer relations and revenue management. based on the
Iron Triangle Model, the company has designed its organizational chart so that these functions
become a vital independent core of the company as per its functionality(Passport, 2017b, July, p.g.
32).
The organization chart of Alibaba also ensure that every function is overseen by the board
of directors which are nominated through an election process, further in senior management the
organization chart contains all the executive function heads with only customer relation,
governance, and research & development department is divided in the hierarchy to Junior
Management(Alibaba, 2020c).
Furthermore, Alibaba has plans to expand in markets of different continents having a
specialized international and external relation departmentalization will benefit the company. Also
having a separate customer relation will help them outreach more small-medium enterprises and
consumers; however, having a board of directors and the voting process could slow down the
decision making process in the organization but could minimize the risk of errors.
SENIOR MANAGEMENT
Junior Management
CFO & Investments
Maggie Wu
Vice President,
President Customer Loyalty
J. Michael Evans
Chief Customer Officer Nico Gawenda
BOARD
Sophie Wu
CMO
Chris Tung
CEO & Executive HR Head of External Affairs
Chairman Judy Tong
Daniel Yong Zhang Brion Tingler
Chief risk and
Vice Chairman of the governance officer
Head of International Affairs
Board Jessie Zhang
Joseph C. Tsai CTO Jennifer Kuperman
Jeff Zhang
Executive Chairman vice president, head of global
Jack Yun Ma General Counsel intellectual-property
Timothy A. Steinert
Director General Counsel Matthew Bassiur
E.Borje Ekholm and Company head of international government
Secretary affairs
Director Albert Lui
Eric Xiandong Jing Eric Pelletier
President of Alibaba
Director Digital Media &
Walter Teh Ming Kwauk Entertainment
Daniel Yong ZHANG
Director
Wan Ling Martello President of Alibaba Global
Director Business Group
Masayoshi Son Angel Zhao
Director President of Alimama
Chee Hwa Tung Yvonne Chang
Director President of
Jerry Yang Taobao
Fan Jiang
President of
Wholesale
Marketplaces Chief quantum technology scientist
Trudy Dai Dr. Shi Yaoyun
President, Cloud President of Alibaba Cloud

Intelligence Intelligence
Selina Yuan Yangqing Jia
Figure 4:Organizational Structure
source:(Alibaba, n.d.-h)
Company Culture
Alibaba’s company culture is the building block of the company, as said by CEO Daniel
zhang “Culture is the bedrock of Alibaba, while innovation is in our DNA”(Alibaba,2020). The
Alibaba uses a corporate administration model that follows the paradigm of the partnership model.
The company follows the partnership model which is based on its values.
The company has also reported finishing the structural changes in the management team
on 10th September (Alibaba, 2019, Dec 6) by putting their focus on innovation and encouraging
the young developers in the company, and taking such steps for becoming more diverse and
globalized workplace.
However, the company has not been able to reflect on its value of “live seriously and work
happily” as the chairmen Jack Ma defended the company overtime work culture by calling it a
blessing which shows that there is somewhat an inbalance in the work-life culture of the
company(Horwitz,2019, April 12).
Furthermore, with the nice logistics and infrastructure and company primary focus on
research and empowering the youth for innovation initiatives will help its work culture to develop
into more modernized space and will help the company to expand internationally in a different
market; however, to do so Alibaba will have to make its company processes more democratic.
Board of Directors
Alibaba has 11 board members which are divided into three board committees,
which are compensation committee (Jerry YANG (Chairman), Walter Teh Ming Kwauk, Joseph
C. Tsai), audit committee (Walter Teh Ming KWAUK (Chairman), E. Börje EKHOLM, Wan
Ling MARTELLO), and nominating and corporate governance committee ( Jack Yun Ma
(Chairman), Chee Hwa Tung, Jerry Yang)(Alibaba,2020a). The board members are elected by an
ordinary resolution of shareholders of Alibaba. Furthermore, the board of directors is divided into
three groups, the group I having terms of office until 2021 general meeting, group II having terms
of office until 2019 general meeting, group III having terms of office until 2020 general meeting
(Alibaba, 2020b).
CEO
Since Alibaba's inception, only 2 CEO changes one was Jack Ma who is the founder and
the other is Daniel Yong Zhang. Zhang before becoming the CEO of Alibaba remained the CEO
of Taobao (Alibaba, 2020a). Before becoming CEO of Alibaba, Daniel served as a primary
operating officer of Alibaba from September 2013to May 2015(Alibaba, 2020b). He joined the
business enterprise in August 2007 as a leading financial officer of Taobao Marketplace and served
on this role until June 2011(Alibaba, 2020c). He took on the extra function of trendy manager for
Tmall.Com in August 2008, which he finished concurrently until his appointment as president of
Tmall.Com in June 2011 while Tmall.Com has become an unbiased platform(Alibaba, 2020d).
Jack Yun Ma Daniel Yong Zhang

(1999-2014) (2015-now)
Total Compensation 4313 Million RMB 7830 Million RMB
Company’s net income 5983 Million RMB 50,132 Million RMB
Percentage of Company Income 72% 15.6%
Figure 5: CEO Compensation
Sources: (Alibaba,2019), (Alibaba,2014)
Daniel Yong Zhang since his take over mentioned that he wanted to reinvent the retail
before anyone does it(Soon, 2019a, October 15, para 1). Zhang wanted to launch a startup named
Freshhippo in Alibaba that will be a hybrid of restaurant, delivery app and a grocery store by using
artificial intelligence, robotics, and facial recognition to make faster and sustainable logistics and
payments (Soon, 2019b, October 15, para 3). Zhangs model of Freshhippo has become the future
face of Alibaba’s structural blueprint (Soon, 2019c, October 15, para 5). Mr. Zhang has said
“Alibaba is uniquely positioned to pull together the online and offline worlds in groceries and
beyond” and his new myriad new initiatives are integrating Alibaba into different sectors like the
healthcare, finance, and entertainment(Elstrom & Chen, 2019, September 9).
Financial Performance
The financial performance of Alibaba will enable us to interpret the financial growth of the
company through previous years of 2017, 2018 and 2019. Such comparative analysis will allow
us to understand the growth trends of Alibaba for future investments. Figure 6 depicts the key data
which allows us to compare the financial performance of Alibaba.
2017 2018 2019

Total Revenue US$ 22.994 billion US$ 39.898 billion US$ 56.152 billion
Total Expenses US$ 16.013 billion US$ 28.769 billion US$ 47.646 billion
Net Income US$ 6.345 billion US$ 10.201 billion US$ 13.053 billion
Current Assets US$ 26.516 billion US$ 40.94 billion US$ 40.27 billion
Total Assets US$ 73.63 billion US$ 114.326 billion US$ 143.801 billion
Current Liabilities US$ 20.97 billion US$ 30.37 billion US$ 37.70 billion
Total Liabilities US$ 26.976 billion US$ 44.748 billion US$ 66.101 billion
Total Number of
Common Stock US$ 2.573 billion US$ 2.61 billion US$ 2.623 billion
Outstanding
Stockholders’
US$ 46.654 billion US$ 69.578 billion US$ 90.681 billion
Equity
Return on Sales 11.44% 8.78% 15.39%
Current Ratio 1.97 1.25 1.75
Return on Equity 18.37% 14.54% 24.30%
Debt-to-Equity 0.29 0.20 0.14
Reported Earnings
US$ 2.47 US$ 3.91 US$ 4.97
Per Share(Basic)
Year-End Stock
US$ 17.72 US$ 21.98 US$ 89.73
Price
Market Cap US$ 55.11 billion US$ 45.07 billion US$ 571.20 billion
Figure 6:Alibaba 2017, 2018& 2019 Financial Performance
Source: (Alibaba, 2017a)(Alibaba, 2018b)(Alibaba, 2019c)
Alibaba has shown revenue growth throughout the three years being highest in the fiscal
year 2019 with a growth of over 56%(Alibaba, 2019a). Further, every year the company’s expenses
have also increased because of the acquisition of licensed copyrights, intangible assets, growing
userbase, and improving user experience(Alibaba, 2018b). Further, the cost of revenue of Alibaba
was 53% of revenue in FY2019 because of the company’s action of buying the food delivery
company Ele.me which valued USD 9.5 billion observing the potential growth in the competitive
market of China (Reuters, 2018, April 2); however, the Alibaba’s total assets and liability have
shown somewhat upward and then downward trend having a significant increase in the year 2018
by 55.27% in total assets and 65.88% in total liabilities because of acquisition of intangible assets
worth of USD 4.756 billion(Alibaba, 2018c).
Alibaba stock price has shown an increase from FY 2017 to 2019 by USD 17.72(Alibaba,
2017) to USD 89.73(Alibaba, 2019a) indicating a positive trend for future investment in the
company. Alibaba’s increase in stock price is because of improved performance of Alibaba’s core
companies like cloud computing, Cainiao network, and acquisition of shares of Ant financial in
the quarterly result of FY2019 that many potential investors like Blackrock inc. observed(Alibaba,
2019b). Further, the company stock prices continuing to rise in Hong Kong protests(Stevenson,
2019, November 25, para.2) and also in the current coronavirus pandemic(Fuscaldo, 2020, March
10).
Comparing Alibaba’s current assets to current liability we get the current ratio with it we
can analyze how likely the company will be able to pay off its short term liabilities. Alibaba’s
current ratio was highest at 1.97 in FY 2017 and plummeted in FY 2018, as Alibaba bought
intangible assets and company's current liability increased in respective year and FY2019 it rose
to 1.75(Alibaba, 2019); however, throughout the 3 years, Alibaba had a current ratio above 1 which
shows that Alibaba doesn’t have to sell their assets to pay their current liability.
Alibaba board of directors has also authorized a new share repurchase program in FY2017
containing an amount of USD 6.0 billion to counterbalance the dilution from the company’s
compensation program(Alibaba, 2017). Further, Alibaba’s earning per share have doubled from
FY 2017 to 2019 by USD 2.47/share to USD 4.97/share.
Furthermore, ROI (Return on Investment) was highest in FY2019 which indicated that the
shareholder's money is being invested efficiently as Alibaba is focusing itself on research and
development exploring the field of artificial intelligence, machine learning and developing more
sustainable logistics processes.
Alibaba’s debt-to-equity ratio has decreased from 0.29 in FY2017 to 0.14 in FY2019
which shows that the company is not relying on its debt which indicates that Alibaba can pay off
its liabilities and shows a positive trend(Alibaba, 2019).
Alibaba’s ratios indicate that the company can keep up with its revenue and expenses, also
providing its investors with a good return per share. Furthermore, the company is keeping up with
these trends and investing in logistics and services companies like Cainiao network, Koubei,
Sunning Corporation(Alibaba, 2019).

Comparative Analysis
Alibaba is one of the largest group holding and retail company globally, its biggest
competitor is Amazon, and also eBay is not behind. The figure below shows the comparison of
Alibaba with its competitors.
Alibaba Group Amazon.com

eBay Inc
Holding Ltd Inc
US$ 280.522 US$ 10.8
Total Revenue US$ 56.152 billion
billion billion
US$ 265.981 US$ 8.479
Total Expenses US$ 47.646 billion
billion billion
US$ 11.588 US$ 2.305
Net Income US$ 13.053 billion
billion billion
US$ $96.33 US$ 4.706
Current Assets US$ 40.27 billion
billion billion
US$ 225.248 US$ 22.819
Total Assets US$ 143.801 billion
billion billion
US$ 87.81 US$ 4.066
Current Liabilities US$ 37.70 billion
billion billion
US$ 163.188 US$ 15.304
Total Liabilities US$ 66.101 billion
billion billion
Total Number of Common US$ 0.504 US$ 0.856
US$ 2.623 billion
Stock Outstanding billion billion
US$ 2.870 US$ 2.870
Stockholders’ Equity US$ 90.681 billion
billion billion
Return on Sales 15.39% 21.07% 20.00%
Current Ratio 1.75 1.10 1.16
Return on Equity 24.30% 21.07% 46.24%
Debt-to-Equity 0.14 0.38 2.52

Reported Earnings Per
US$ 4.97 US$ 23.46 US$ 2.09
Share(Basic)
Year-End Stock Price US$ 89.73 US$ 1847.84 US$ 36.11
US$ 906.44 US$ 26.295
Market Cap US$ 571.20 billion
billion billion
Figure 7: Alibaba, Amazon & eBay 2019 Financial Performance
Source: (Alibaba, 2019), (Amazon, 2019), (eBay, 2019)
Among the two competitors, Alibaba seems to do better than eBay but lag behind Amazon,
the reason for which could be that Amazon has well established its operations globally with its
global selling program(Amazon, 2020) but Alibaba is still struggling to construct an establishment
like Amazon.
Alibaba is lagging behind Amazon in the majority of the fields like annual revenue and the
market capital and leading in comparison to eBay. The reason for which is that Amazon has
destroyed eBay’s potential market with its platform and customer outreach logistics and being a
US brand it has roots in the American, European market, and could also be seen flourishing in
Asian nations like India(Strauss, 2019, August 6).
Alibaba has the highest current ratio which shows that Alibaba has a better ability to pay
off its liabilities than Amazon and eBay. Furthermore, the Shareholders' equity in Alibaba is way
much higher than Amazon and eBay combined which is favorable for the investors this is a major
point that differentiates Alibaba from its competitors.
Furthermore, the stock price of Alibaba is less than Amazon that is USD 89.73and USD
1847.84(Financialpost, 2020, March 15); however, the low stock prices are an opportunity for
investors because Alibaba’s stock rose by 40% in FY2019 for which the author of Motley Fool
Anders Bulund quoted “Alibaba's business looks as healthy as ever and company's incredible sales
growth, which feeds into an equally fantastic cash machine of a business model”(2020).
Alibaba left amazon behind on return on Equity with 24.30% but is significantly behind
eBay which is at 46.24 which is significantly high than the average of 31.06% in the retail
industry(Nickolas, 2018, July 2017).
Alibaba fell behind Amazon in the majority of the areas but leading eBay key point to
notice as quoted by David Jagielski “Amazon is spending money to make money”(2019,

November 21) which is why the company operations are becoming more expensive making it the
largest spender among the three competitors, further he quoted, “if the company can maintain its
high-profit margins, which have been a lot stronger than Amazon's over the past few years, then
the increase in sales will also give Alibaba's net income a big boost as well”(2019, November 21).
Marketing Strategy
Alibaba is a big e-commerce giant and serves millions of small and medium enterprises
around the world(Alibaba, 2020). The growth of the company depends on its marketing strategy
to provide its products and services globally. We will analyze how Alibaba is reaching its target
market and how it's deciding on four Ps of the marketing that is price, product, promotion, and
place.
Target Market
Alibaba’s main customers are trade agents, retailers, wholesalers, small and medium
enterprises, and manufacturers (Alibaba, 2020a). Alibaba provides a direct buyer to buyer
interaction on its platform providing import and export supply chain services to its members like
customer clearance, trade financing, and logistics(Alibaba, 2020b). The Alibaba has customers in
190 nations (Alibaba, March 31, 2019). Alibaba was created to provide a platform for mainly
empower small and medium enterprises with a marketplace where they can reach out to the world
economies so the company business model represents that with the iron triangle of Jack Yun Ma
which represents commerce, logistics, and finance(Passport, 2017a, July, p.g. 32).
Further, the company has an online marketplace website Taobao which was launched in
2003 (Alibaba,2020c). Taobao provides a personalized experience to its customer which are
mainly individuals and merchants(Alibaba,2020d). Taobao provides its users with realtime data
analytics and product trends to provide the merchants and consumers to learn about new
products(Alibaba,2020e). Tabao’s main target market is in china currently being the largest mobile
marketplace in the nation; however, Alibaba is trying hard to outreach the audience in America
and western countries(Alibaba, 2020f).

Alibaba Group also has a domestic wholesale market platform1688 found in 1999 mainly
based in China and has a target market of enterprises who trade in domestic products(Alibaba,
2020g). Like 1688 to outreach the international wholesalers Alibaba has its platform AliExpress
where buyers around the world can directly buy from the distributors and manufacturers in China
(Alibaba, 2020h). Further, Alibaba has websites that provide its users with options of 17 different
languages to outreach the global audience(Alibaba, 2020i).
For monetizing its processes and providing its users with realtime data Alibaba uses
Alimama which was launched in 2007 which utilizes big data analytics technology and provides
the retailers and enterprises with media resources(Alibaba, 2020j). The Alimama platform also
maintains affiliation with third party entertainment media like apps and websites to provide its
users with a service of extended marketing and promotion(Alibaba, 2020k).
For its logistics and networking the Alibaba established Cainiao Network in 2013 as
logistics being an important part of the company marketing the Cainiao Network provides the user
with delivery services(Alibaba, 2020l). The Alibaba quoted that “Alibaba Group’s logistics vision
of fulfilling consumer orders within 24 hours in China and within 72 hours anywhere else in the
world” with that vision the Cainiao Network provides domestic and international one-stop logistics
services and have a network of different transportation distributors and lessons its customers with
various other logistics service to its customers(Chen, September 24, 2019).
The third pillar of the iron triangle of Jack Yun Ma which is financing Alibaba provides its
customers with the financing of small and medium loans and also in September Alibaba bought
33% of the Ant Financial which is a fintech company making its one of the business of Alibaba.
Now Ant Financial provides its consumers like small and micro businesses with financial services
with digital payment services and financial technology(Chen, September 24, 2019).
At last, to maintain its platforms and provide utility services to its customers, Alibaba has
AlibabaCloud which was established in 2009(AlibabaCloud, 2020a). Alicloud provides small and
medium enterprises with storage services, modern large scale computing, data analytics, security,
and management services(AlibabaCloud, 2020b). AliCloud also serves as a machine learning
platform promoting the Alibaba agenda of incorporating artificial intelligence into its platform
operations and promotion of the digital economy(AlibabaCloud, 2020c).
Product Strategy
Alibaba platforms mainly provide services list of the services provided by Alibaba and are
provided to you in the appendix. Alibaba utilizes technology to provide its customers which are
small-medium enterprises, merchants, and individuals with realtime personalized user experience
with assistance in customs clearance of importance/export of goods, trade financing by providing
loans and credits with their financial services platform Ant Financial, and logistics services with
CainioNetwork(Alibaba, 2020a).
The provision of loans helps the small and micro businesses to trade on Alibaba platform
further to expand Alibaba also provide these enterprises with realtime data analytics about the
products they are selling to outreach their customers according to the trends in the market. Further
Alibaba provides promotion and marketing services to its customers by associating with third party
media platforms like apps and websites to create advertisements(Alibaba, 2020b).
Further, the company provides data analytics and cloud computing services through its
platform AlibabaCloud which serves companies globally and serves 1 million customers globally
in 200 countries. The AlibabaCloud serves as IoT and cybersecurity features to many of its tech
company clients(Medium, February 18, 2019).

Pricing Strategy
Alibaba’s platforms provide many packages and offer to its customers, like the sales on
special months are held. Alibaba also provides cashback and for its service platform like Alibaba
cloud a free trial period with 16 free trial products, 20 plus always free products worth of 450
dollars for 1 year and for enterprises they are providing products worth $1300 with impressive pay
as you go billing structure(Medium, February 18, 2019).
The revenue earned by Alibaba is majorly dependent on the advertisement and marketing
they provide to their customers on their platforms with monetization platforms like Alimama
having affiliation with the third party media houses(Alibaba, 2020).
Furthermore other than that the Alibaba revenue is also generated from the customers who
take a membership. In the fiscal year 2019, the membership revenue of Alibaba Cloud comprises
a large part of the total company revenue. Overall, Alibaba tries to keep pricing at its platforms
affordable to the majority of the customers(Medium, February 18, 2019).
Promotion Strategy
The promotion strategy of Alibaba based on their affiliation with the third party media
platform and entertainment platforms of Alibaba itself with social media marketing and promotion.
Alibaba is a smart business which means it can utilize data to its advantage and promote more
trending services that are consumed by its users the most(Zheng, 2018a). The algorithms the
company platforms utilize gives the consumers an immersive experience. Alibaba’s affiliation
with the third party media platforms makes it easy for the company to promote its services and
products. Alibaba also does trade shows around the world to attract enterprises to its
platform(Zheng, 2018b). The supplier can opt for packages like trade assurance which protects
their orders from payment to delivery also the company provides premium supplier memberships,
the premium businesses on the company platform are the companies verified by a third-party
agency as a legally registered business (Alibaba, 2020). The Alibaba also provides learning and
training centers for suppliers to provide them with the knowledge of e-commerce, international
trading, industry analysis and many more, this strategy of the company attracts many small and
micro startup businesses(Zheng, 2018c).
Distribution Strategy
Domestic e-trade retail on the agency’s online shopping platforms, consisting of Taobao
and Tmall, generated a total sales of 247.6 billion yuan in 2019 - around seventy-one billion yuan
extra than inside the preceding year(Alibaba, 2019). According to the corporation, initiatives such
as the new Taobao app interface, greater curated posts, brief videos, and live publicizes resulted
in a higher quantity of purchases and improved consumer engagement(Zheng, 2018).
International e-trade retail accounted for handiest five percent of Alibaba’s revenue;
however, the segment revenue grew from 14.2 billion yuan in 2018 to 19.6 billion yuan in 2019.
AliExpress and Lazada.Com were Alibaba’s most popular pass-border e-commerce structures with
a total of more than a hundred and twenty million annual active users(Alibaba, 2019).
Alibaba being a smart business having a technological advancement and robust logistical
distribution model has helped Alibaba in realtime access to communicate and trade to its buyers
anywhere and anytime (Alibaba, 2020).
Company Position
Alibaba provides services to its customers from starting a business on its platform to
managing and running the various aspects of it like logistics, financing and much more(Medium,
February 18, 2019a). The company has adopted the technology to its benefit, the Company’s
success is also due to its huge presence in the Chinese domestic market with almost 80% of China’s
commerce happen on its platforms(Medium, February 18, 2019b).

Alibaba doesn't own the bulk inventory of the products unlike its competitors, it maintains
a huge manufacturer base from countries like India which can connect anywhere in the world and
utilize the Alibaba logistics services to transport their shipments. Being placed in China and Asia
itself puts Alibaba in a better position as Chinese consumption provides Alibaba with growth
opportunities(Zeng, 2018a).
Alibaba acts as a middle man it provides its customers with all the services from which
they can find a bigger market for their products, unlike its competitor Alibaba’s network of website
platform distinguishes the company from others as no other e-commerce company follows such
robust asset-light model(Medium, February 18, 2019c).
Alibaba’s business model allows it to have less capital intensive operations because of its
lighter infrastructure. Further, Alibaba has listed more products on its platform than its biggest
competitors like Amazon. The Alibaba marketing business model is perfect for long term
investment and higher returns could be expected of the company(Zheng, 2018b).
Company Outlook
Alibaba also called the Amazon of China, is forced to have rallied this year and the whole
credit goes to it’s strengthening fundamentals. Looking at Alibaba’s stock, BABA showed
significant growth in the year 2019(Reuters, November 1, 2019).with its revenue rising by 51
percent despite many difficulties with external factors like a trade war between the USA and China.
The strong growth has been possible only due to improvement in the company’s core
commerce, some of them are Tmall and Tabao like shopping platforms and its cloud services which
are also showing great rapid growth(Reuters, November 1, 2019). Hence, the future appears bright
for the company.
At the beginning of 2020, the stocks of the company showed great increase even though it
fell after that due to fears of coronavirus. Investors can reap the benefit of this small fell in stock
and can convert this into a great opportunity for themselves by purchasing Alibaba’s shares at a
lesser price(Reuters, November 1, 2019).
Most analyst underestimates the growth in stocks of Alibaba. However, the stock for
Alibaba has shown consistent growth in the year 2017, 2018, 2019 and it also has been analyzed
that the company stock would show more improvement in 2020(Reuters, November 1, 2019).
With developing micro and macro fundamentals, the stock may be able to hit $250 by June
and may reach more than $300 at the end of the year. Furthermore, market analysts also believe
that Alibaba will have a consistent 20% growth rate in the next 3 years and this growth rate is still
better than its competitor like Amazon(Reuters, November 1, 2019).
The trade war between the USA and China proved beneficial for Alibaba. Because the
price growth will be very high as both of these countries have trade agreements and also BABA
will continue to expand both locally and internationally(Reuters, November 1, 2019).
The international revenue is also being predicted to reach about 3.7 billion by the starting
of the year 2022. Alibaba is expanding globally, with Europe being a top attraction this year. The
company is undercutting Amazon seller’s fees to attract vendors. Small businesses in the region
are joining Aliexpress, but some big brands are backing out still the company is optimistic about
high growth(Reuters, November 1, 2019).
Recommendation
Tegridy Consultancy Company will recommend you to invest in Alibaba as the company
has shown a lot of positive outlook for the future and the ability to survive the crisis such as Hong
Kong protests and COVID19. Also, the global outlook e-commerce is changing with social media
marketing the generation z and millennial’s are very much driven toward entrepreneurship so
groups like Alibaba can provide them with the base of logistics, finance, and promotion. Also, the
company is investing a lot of money in research and development with its cloud base business
generated 62% of the revenue in the fiscal year 2019 the trend of cloud computing and big data
analytics will benefit the company(Reuters, November 1, 2019).
On the financial ground, the company has shown growth in each fiscal year and a healthy
rise in stock prices compared to its competitors the Alibaba was able to maintain better
stockholders' equity than its competitors. With the new CEO, the company is also investing in new
innovative startups and promoting innovation among young employees(Reuters, November 1,
2019).
The company will be able to increase its presence in western markets also like the cheap
production of China will attract the retailers and wholesalers of the west to invest in the company.
Alibaba has shown its investors a steady gain throughout the year for the long term investments
and the risk factors of investing in the company are also low(TheMotletFool, October 10, 2019a).
The world is pushing toward the digital economy and Alibaba has its core businesses
already in the financial technology business and has a good customer base in the field for the
emerging Asian economies the company could also prove an important role many small and
medium enterprise and individual merchants of huge market base like India constitute the customer
of Alibaba which could prove beneficial in the company growth in future(TheMotletFool, October
10, 2019b).
The company has some operational performance issues which could happen in a company
whose operation is spread globally and is not much of concern. Further CEO Daniel Zhang is
taking measures to change the work culture of the company quoting “ Today’s best performance
is tomorrow’s baseline ”. The company will nurture and grow to become a stock with great returns
and has huge investment potential, we would recommend the investors to invest in
Alibaba(TheMotletFool, October 10, 2019c).

Appendix
Appendix A: Board of Directors
Board Members Occupation/Industry
Daniel Yung Zhang CEO & Executive Chairmen

Joseph C. Tsai Vice-Chairman of the Board
Jack Yun Ma Founder and Director
J. Michael Evans Director & President
E Borje Ekholm Independent Director

Eric Xiandong Jing Director
Walter Teh Ming Kwauk Independent Director
Wan Ling Martello Independent Director

Masayoshi son Director
Chee Hwa Tung Independent Director
Jerry Yang Independent Director

Figure 8: Board of Directors
Source: (Alibaba, 2020)

Appendix B: Businesses List
Business Services
 Customs Clearance
Alibaba.com  Trade Financing
 Logistics Services
 Personalized Shopping
Taobao  Data Analytics for trending
products
 Virtual Store Fronts

 Brand and Product Marketing
TMall
 Inventory Management
 Warehousing
 Affiliation Web stores
AliExpress
1688  Domestic Wholesale Market
 Data analytics
Alimama  Affiliate Marketing Program
 Advertisement promotions
 Cloud Computing Services
 Database storage
 Security
Alibaba Cloud  Network Virtualization
Services
 Management and Application
Services
 Order Tracking Services
 Supply Chain Management
Cainiao Network Services
 Domestic and International
one-stop-shop logistic services
 Financial Services
Ant Financial  Digital Payment Services
 Financial Technology Platform
Figure 9:Alibaba Service
Source: (Alibaba, 2020),(Alibaba Cloud,2020), (Alimama,2020)

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Alibaba Company Analysis

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Running head: GROUP ANALYSIS ON ALIBABA 1

Dear Business 100 Investors,

of Alibaba which will guide investors in their judgment of investing in Alibaba.

potential the company has.

through years and outlook for 2020.

investors understand the decision processing of Alibaba.

of information you seek for your investment decision.

FRASER VALLEY INDIA

COMPANY OVERVIEW & COMPANY SITUATION ANALYSIS

BUS-100 Author(s) Nitish Jaswal (300181850),

INTERIM SUBMISSION 1 Tejas Sharma (300181983)

Prachee Sehgal Deepkanwal Singh (300181953)

Pranav Chopra (300182058)

Alibaba Group is a Chinese multinational holding company, we have provided the

technology to become more globalized.

could lead to critical issues and threats for Alibaba.

innovation initiative in the company.

provided in the CEO section of the report.

Alibaba overall we forecast a positive development in Alibaba's financial position.

COMPANY OVERVIEW ........................................................................................................... 9

COMPANY SITUATION ................................................................................................ 11

PESTEL ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................ 11

SWOT ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................... 14

CRITICAL ISSUES .................................................................................................................. 16

Strategic Direction ..................................................................................................................... 17

Mission, Vision, and Values ..................................................................................... 18

Organizational Structure ............................................................................................................ 21

Company Culture ...................................................................................................... 23

Financial Performance ............................................................................................................... 25

Comparative Analysis ............................................................................................... 28

Product Strategy ........................................................................................................ 33

Promotion Strategy ................................................................................................... 34

Distribution Strategy ................................................................................................. 35

Company Position ..................................................................................................... 35

Company Outlook ..................................................................................................................... 36

Appendix A: Board of Directors ............................................................................................... 39

Board Members ......................................................................................................................... 39

Appendix B: Businesses List ..................................................................................................... 40

Figure 1:Key Facts .......................................................................................................................... 9

Figure 2: PESTEL ANALYSIS .................................................................................................... 11

Figure 3:SWOT ANALYSIS ........................................................................................................ 14

Figure 4:Organizational Structure................................................................................................. 22

Figure 5: CEO Compensation ....................................................................................................... 24

Figure 6:Alibaba 2017, 2018& 2019 Financial Performance ....................................................... 26

Figure 7: Alibaba, Amazon & eBay 2019 Financial Performance ............................................... 28

Figure 8: Board of Directors ......................................................................................................... 39

Figure 9:Alibaba Service .............................................................................................................. 40

or to not to invest in Alibaba group

performing in comparison to other e-commerce industries.

growth as per policies and vision adopted by the organization.

Alibaba Group is a Chinese multinational holding company with businesses in mobile

Head Office a.) Alibaba Group Holding Limited

Revenue USD (million) e.) 56,971.2

Financial year-end f.) March

Figure 1:Key Facts

Amortization) (Alibaba, 2019a, November 1, pg.4).

users (MAUs) (Alibaba, 2019b, November 1, pg.4).

o 693 MM annual active consumers (Alibaba, 2019c, November 1, pg.4).

o 1.5 billion product listing (Alibaba Ltd, 2019d, November 1, pg.4).

research and development according to the changing economies.

o China is a Communist party-led state o Subsidized innovation and

government in the economy (WorldFactBook,2020 February 5). With Xi Jinping re-elected as

president in 2018, he emphasized on economic growth, as reported by New Yorker he said:

“ continual growth, continual development, continual innovation, and technological breakthroughs