Alibaba's Sophisticated Monopoly Strategy Expands To EVs

By being a Chinese multinational company specialized in e-commerce, retail, Internet, and technology, Alibaba Group Holding Limited BABA, or just Alibaba.com, has a lot of reasons to be under the spotlight. But over the last month, it was mentioned due to three main reasons: the suspended blockbuster IPO of Ant Financial, the most recent earnings that failed to dazzle investors, and the anti-monopoly rules aimed at giving regulators more control over monopolies.

Even though Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang labeled these plans as "timely and necessary", both Alibaba's and other Chinese tech giants' shares plunged earlier this month as much as 20% in just two weeks. Alibaba's fintech affiliate, Ant Group was close to making a record with a $37 billion IPO on November 5th, with an estimated valuation of almost $300 billion. However, this blockbuster IPO, publicized as the largest in history, was suspended due to above-mentioned regulations. Alibaba, as a major shareholder with a 33% ownership stake in Ant Group, felt the impact of these imposed brakes directly. But there is so much more to Alibaba's ground-breaking success than attracting sellers by eliminating listing fees. This company excels at identifying and seizing unique business opportunities.

EV News

There is no tech giant that can allow itself not to think ahead, what will be the next big thing. Many tech giants both in the US and China already teamed up with traditional carmakers, trying to be a part of the transition to electric and autonomous vehicles. Back in 2015, Alibaba joined forces with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, one of the "Big Four" state-owned Chinese automakers, to create an operating system for EVs. This cooperation advances when Alibaba recently invested in Zhiji Motor, a new electric vehicle arm launched by SAIC. Huawei also plans to get into the car industry by providing Information Communication Technology equipment for the automakers. This type of cooperation is already seen in Chinese EV startups like Xpeng Inc XPEV and Nio NIO, who are aiming to challenge other than Tesla TSLA itself. Alibaba already has worked with  BMW BMWYY and Audi, under parent company Volkswagen Group VWAGY, over the years so it is no stranger to the automotive business.

What do investors fear?

Investors were not impressed with Alibaba's last quarter earnings. The company achieved adjusted income of $2.65 per share with a revenue of $22.8 billion. Wall street's expected earnings were $2.12 per share with revenues of $23.2 billion. However, when looking at the revenues in the Chinese currency, the estimate was 154.9 billion yuan, while the company achieved 155.06 billion. Maybe the investors expected more, having in mind the positive trend which Amazon AMZN and other e-commerce companies are having. The fact is there are six companies which take up almost 60 percent of the global online purchasing pie, with Alibaba owning two of them. Other than two more Chinese companies with a substantial share, there is eBay EBAY and JD.com JD who have simpler business models which are less exposed to antitrust measures. Due to strong competition, as well as tighter regulations and the law of large numbers, Alibaba's e-commerce revenues will probably decelerate in the following year. Considering that this is where Alibaba generates most of its revenue, with which I subsidizes the growth of other core segments that are still unprofitable (Alibaba Cloud, Digital Media and Entertainment, and Innovation Initiatives), it's no wonder that investors were not delighted.

Conclusion

November was a rough month for Alibaba, but it is recovering. Not to mention that Chinese economy has emerged as the fastest recovering economy from the pandemic, while also being projected to be the single economy to report YoY growth this year. Alibaba remains as an international e-commerce empire that keeps evolving with green development initiatives. Although Ant Group IPO has slim chance to take place next year, the IPO's collapse won't impact Alibaba's near-term growth. However, it won't generate cash or boost its earnings as Alibaba had planned.

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