Alibaba vs Amazon? It’s tough to compare the two e-commerce companies given that each company subscribes to different business model. But that didn’t stop the guys at Smart Intern China to create an infographic comparing the two giants.
Infographic aside, it is perhaps important to note that Amazon and Alibaba each adopts different e-commerce models. Amazon follows the B2C model which purchases stock and maintains its own warehouse and logistics. Whereas Alibaba follows the C2C and B2B2C models (like Taobao and Tmall) which are open platforms and marketplaces. Despite generating substantially more revenue than Alibaba, Amazon isn’t yet profitable.
Last year March, Alibaba’s Founder and Chairman Jack Ma slammed Amazon’s business model at a conference where he said the B2C model “is going to face a huge challenge.” We believe that putting (…) the traditional business just purely online – that’s not called e-commerce.
In the future, business will not make money because of the scale, it’s because of the value – the different value – created. (…) I checked Amazon.
They have $52 billion but they still do not make money, so ‘scale’ does not make any sense. He also went on to offer his opinion about e-commerce in China and in the US, describing e-commerce in the US a dessert. See: Jack Ma is now China’s richest person “It’s supplementary to their main business, because the USA’s infrastructure of doing business is so good.
So it is very difficult for e-commerce in the USA to grow, to develop, to surpass the traditional business,” Ma said. “But in China, because the infrastructure of commerce is too bad, then e-commerce becomes the main course.” Alibaba is poised to go public on the New York Stock Exchange in what could be the biggest IPO in US and internet history.
