Alibaba Group Holding Limited is a Chinese technology company that operates well-known marketplaces like Alibaba.com, Taobao, AliExpress, Juhuasuan, and Tmall. It also offers mobile payment services through Alipay and offers cloud computing services through AliCloud. The company went public in a $25 billion IPO, which was the largest IPO ever at the time (it is a close second to Saudi Aramco now). The size and scale of Alibaba make it one of the top e-commerce stocks to buy.
Alibaba recently has been in the news because its affiliate, the Ant Group, is planning to file for a record-breaking IPO in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Ant has made loans to 500 million people in one year and has charged interest rates of around 15%. Ant also operates Alipay, the world’s largest online and mobile payments platform. Alibaba has a host of “world’s largest” honors to its name. It is among the largest internet companies in the world, it is the world’s largest retail and e-commerce company, and it holds the record for the highest sales in a day during the 2018 Singles Day shopping festival. Alibaba’s scale makes it one of the best e-commerce stocks to buy.
Alibaba reported its Q12021 earnings on August 20th, 2020. Total revenue was up 34% year-on-year to CNY 154 billion. The cloud computing segment was attributed as one of the key drivers of this revenue growth. The segment grew by 59%. In fact, Alibaba has the first-mover advantage in China over competitors like Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services. It is among the best cloud computing stocks 2020.
Alibaba is also a serious player in the digital media and entertainment segment. Its platform Youku’s daily active subscriber base grew 60% year-over-year during Q12021. Alibaba also operates Alipay and ticketing platform Damai. Additionally, it has a film company called Alibaba Pictures under its belt. The group is among the top entertainment stocks to buy. The ability to accumulate useful data from across marketplaces and platforms is Alibaba’s biggest strategic asset.
