Is Alibaba Comparable To a US Company?

Posted by timothy on Saturday September 20, 2014 @03:23PM from the well-the-name-is-magical-to-start dept.

lpress writes Alibaba is this week's hot news — they have had a lengthy PR campaign (preceded by a documentary film) followed by a record-setting stock offering. After a day of trading Alibaba's market capitalization was comparable to that of established tech giants. But, there are cultural and structural differences between Alibaba and U.S. companies. Alibaba is tightly woven into a complex fabric of personal, corporate and government organization relationships. The same can be said of information technology companies in Singapore. Is owning a share of, say, Apple, conceptually the same as owning a share of Alibaba?

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What a question? by bogaboga · 2014-09-20 15:30 · Score: 5, Interesting

Is owning a share of, say, Apple, conceptually the same as owning a share of Alibaba?
How can this be the case? In a few instances: -
If one is looking for return on investment, then it's probably the same.
If on the other hand, one is looking for an avenue to influence company direction, owning shares in Alibaba and startng this effort is almost a guaranteed exercise in frustration, for Alibaba is a company with capitalist "genes" which have a tinge of socialist, heavy-handed characteristics.
I should add that this isn't bad at all.