阿里IPO:所有你需要知道的事

    阿里巴巴有何过人之处？

    阿里巴巴是中国最大的电子商务公司，在中国人的日常生活中扮演重要角色。其业务模式类似于eBay，扮演着买家和卖家之间的中间人角色。阿里巴巴上一年年收入85亿美元，通过其网站销售的产品价值超过3,000亿美元，今年，销售额还将大幅增长。二季度收入增长46%，其中很大一部分来自移动设备端交易的销售额强劲增长。

    而且，阿里巴巴在B2B领域也非常成功，而亚马逊和eBay尚未在这一领域取得突破。大小企业都能通过阿里巴巴的网络销售平台订购办公用品，从普通的打印纸和铅笔，到更为复杂的定制汽车发动机和零件。批发收入在总收入中占比仍较小（11.8%），但对阿里巴巴而言是一个潜在增长领域。

    阿里巴巴在培养女性高管方面也成绩骄人。该公司18位创始人中有三分之一是女性，彭蕾和武卫两位女性高管更是阿里巴巴IPO的幕后推手。

    阿里巴巴是否值得投资

    这是一个极为重要又难以回答的问题。《财富》（Fortune）杂志的史蒂夫•甘德尔和肖恩•杜利在电视上进行了辩论。甘德尔表示，阿里巴巴的股票最终可能远超华尔街银行家给出的估值。与之相反，杜利建议不要买入阿里巴巴股票：阿里巴巴可能正迈向成功，但这不足以证明该公司值得投资。两人谁对谁错？答案很快就将揭晓。（财富中文网）

    译者：Irene

    What’s so great about Alibaba?

    Alibaba is China’s largest e-commerce company–and a big part of daily Chinese life. It has a business model similar to eBay in that it acts as a middleman between buyers and sellers. Alibaba had an annual revenue of $8.5 billion on over $300 billion worth of goods sold on its sites, and its sales are on track to well surpass that this year. Second quarter revenue grew 46%, much of that due to strong sales growth through transaction on mobile devices.

    Alibaba has also successfully gone where Amazon and eBay have yet to break through: business-to-business products. Alibaba’s online sales platform lets businesses – big and small – to order supplies, from vanilla copy paper and pencils to more elaborate custom-built car engines and parts. Wholesale revenues are still a small piece of the overall –11.8% of total revenue–but represents an area of potential growth for the online retailer.

    The Chinese retailer has a standout track record for developing talented women in its top ranks. A third of Alibaba’s 18 co-founders are women, and two top females, Lucy Peng and Maggie Wu, are the duo responsible for the company’s IPO behind the scenes.

    So, is Alibaba a good investment?

    This is the billion dollar question. Fortune’s Stephen Gandel and Shawn Tully sat down to battle it out on camera. Gandel says that shares of the Chinese retailer might end up being worth much more than Wall Street bankers seem to think. Tully, on the other hand, says stay away: Alibaba may be on its way to success, but that’s not nearly nearly enough to make it a good investment. We’ll soon find out who was right.