Alibaba

[TheWorldNewsOrg]

Alibaba Says It Smashed Sales Records On China’s ‘Singles Day’ https://t.co/nNz7P62YRu

— NPR (@NPR) November 11, 2016

via TheWorldNewsOrg

via journal.theworldnewsmedia.org

[Guest]

Alibaba took a majority stake in logistics affiliate Cainiao, pledging up to $15 billion to expand its global network.

[Guest]

A little bit of Jack Ma can go a long way. Take it from the Alibaba (+0.87%) chief exec himself, who pledged to invest $15 billion over the next three years into a network of R&D facilities. 

And with locations planned for the U.S., Russia, Israel, and Singapore you know he’s not playing around. It’s all part of Alibaba’s 300-year vision (yes, 300) to be the world leader in quantum computing, AI, IoT, fintech, and human-machine interaction.

But to do so, it’s got to keep up with the likes of Bezos and Page. Amazon spent $16 billion in R&D last year while Alphabet spent $14 billion. As for Alibaba? Only $2.6 billion. 

Implicit in Ma’s plan is optimism towards the potential of technology. A world where CEOs and robots can be one in the same. But ask someone more in Musk’s line of thinking and they’ll say AI is public enemy numero uno. 

Either way, Ma is set in his ways. And if he gets his way, robots will be writing this newsletter in a few years.

Or are they already?

https://www.morningbrew.com/stories/dont-less-ma/

[Guest]

ICYMI, Saturday was Alibaba’s Singles Day (Prime Day’s better-looking, Chinese cousin). You might want to sit down for this. These numbers aren’t for the faint of heart. 

Smoke: The 24-hour shopping bonanza generated $25.3 billion in sales. That’s a 40% increase from last year.
Fire: This summer, Amazon Prime Day brought in $1 billion (or, what Singles Day hit in the first two minutes). 

Smoke: About 500 million people visited an Alibaba-run website on Singles Day.
Fire: The entire population of the U.S. is ~326 million. 

Smoke: Alibaba Cloud was put to the test, processing 175k transactions a second—good thing, as Singles Day requires the most computing power in China all year.
Fire: Amazon Web Services (AWS) destroys Alibaba in the all-important “infrastructure as a service” cloud vertical: AWS controls 44% of the market. Alibaba, 3%. 

Cheers (or, “Gan Bei!”) to the 33 lucky customers who paid $1,673 for a lifetime supply of grain alcohol, Baijiu. That stuff is nasty, but you got a great deal.

[TheWorldNewsOrg]

And AGAIN in 2018....

Alibaba Blows Amazon Out of the Water

Jack Ma is really, really grateful your best swiping efforts have only resulted in a few awkward first dates. That's because on China's annual Singles Day shopping event, his Alibaba raked in a record $30.8 billion in sales in just 24 hours.

Take that, Amazon Prime Day. Sales during Alibaba's spending extravaganza whizzed past Amazon's biggest shopping day of the year...in the time it takes you to shower and brush your teeth—less than 10 minutes.

What else was notable?

• Alibaba said the top three brands in early Singles Day sales were Xiaomi, Apple, and Dyson.
• It jumped past the previous Singles Day sales record of $25.3 billion by the early evening, and total sales grew 27% from last year.

A lot of people were concerned that a slowing Chinese economy could undermine Singles Day. And while Alibaba did hit a new record, that 27% growth was the smallest increase in the 10 years the event has existed.