财新传媒 财新传媒
Doug Young

Bottom line: Alibaba's vague road map in its latest chairman and CEO annual shareholder letter is too far off to be meaningful, but does chart its aspirations to change from its current form to something more like an IT services company.

Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) founder Jack Ma and his heir apparent Daniel Zhang have just laid out their vision for the e-commerce giant in their latest annual letter to shareholders, and I have to say it's at once very grand while also being quite short on detail. T...

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Doug Young

Bottom line: Alibaba's purchase of 33 percent of Ant Financial looks like a shrewd move for both firms, making Ant more attractive in the run-up to an IPO likely to be one of the world's biggest this year.

Alibaba and Ant back together

In what looks like a homecoming of sorts, e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) has just announced it is taking back a major stake in its Ant Financial affiliate. Followers of this pair will know they have quite a long and complex relation...

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Doug Young

Global is great. Anyone who follows the China business scene probably wouldn’t need too long to guess those words were uttered by Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who was singing the praises of free trade and globalism on the second day of the World Economic Forum this week in Davos, Switzerland. Ma never saw a platform he didn’t like, including the e-commerce platforms that have made him one of the world’s richest men, as well as more figurative platforms like the World Economic Forum.

Ma’s gro...

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Doug Young

FINANCE: Jack Ma's Yu'ebao Fund Gets Too Fat

Doug Young 08月14日

财新传媒英文部编辑

Bottom line: Yu'ebao's further lowering of investment limits shows the Ant Financial-owned fund is growing too unwieldy, and the company would be better advised to diversify its wealth management product portfolio.

Yu'ebao gets too fat on cash

Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) founder Jack Ma is quickly discovering that his super-aggressive promotional ways can sometimes yield too much success. That's my quick assessment of the bottom line from reports that Yu'ebao, the phenomenally ...

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Doug Young

INTERNET: Alibaba Works on China's Railroad

Doug Young 05月18日

财新传媒英文部编辑

Bottom line: Alibaba's potential new partnership with China's rail operator could become a major new business opportunity, and could see the pair sign a strategic equity tie-up within the next year.

Alibaba ties with railway operator

Up until now, I've written about China's mixed-ownership reform program mostly in the context of China Unicom (HKEx: 762; NYSE: CHU), the nation's second largest wireless carrier, which is in the final stages of drafting a plan to sell some ...

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Doug Young

Bottom line: Sesame Credit's new tie-ups with Unicom and a shared phone company are part of a string of deals to aggressively build up its credit rating business, and could add buzz to Ant Financial's future IPO.

Sesame Credit in 2 new deals

Lest anyone think Alipay is the only asset in financial services giant Ant Financial's portfolio, the company's newer Sesame Credit unit is also hankering for headlines these days, with a couple of new deals for its service. The larg...

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Doug Young

Bottom line: Ant Financial will counter bid for MoneyGram, following a surprise rival bid for the company, while Alibaba Pictures' absorption of the former Youku Tudou looks like a logical consolidation of Alibaba's filmed entertainment assets.

Ant's MoneyGram offer attracts rival bidder

Two of Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) founder Jack Ma's biggest endeavors outside his core e-commerce business are in the headlines, led by a counter bid for a US financial services company his An...

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Doug Young

Bottom line: A meeting between Jack Ma and Donald Trump is a major coup for Alibaba and bodes well for its US relations, while a privatization plan for its partly owned Intime Retail reflects its spottier record for strategic investments.

Jack Ma scores Donald Trump meeting

E-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) is wasting no time making big headlines in the New Year, starting with a major coup that has seen founder Jack Ma become the first big Chinese business leader to ...

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