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Amazon vs Alibaba vs eBay vs Wal-Mart
As the e-Commerce marketplace continues to grow, participatingorganizations have aggressively added to their capabilities and arepositioning themselves for the future. Internet shoppingspace in the U.S. is largely dominated by Amazon, while Alibaba isdoing the same in China. Ebay is lagging behind Amazon, but still astrong competitor to Amazon. Wal-Mart is trying not to leave the USe-commerce market to Amazon. Each of these giants has asignificant, loyal base of customers, and they continue to innovateand grow and gain acceptance in their respective geographies andbeyond.
While their operations have many similarities, there are cleardifferences between the business models of Amazon, Alibaba. eBay,and Wal-Mart.
Amazon
Alibaba
eBay or Wal-Mart
Core market
United States
China
United States
Other markets (provide examples)
At home business
Families
Smartphone users
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Basic business model
Massive retailer for both new and used goods
Middleman between buyers and sellers [core business resembleseBay]
Large retailer for both new and used goods
OR
Massive brick and mortar retailer for new goods
Sources of revenue
Online and physical stores, third-party seller services,subscription services through Amazon service, andadvertising
Buyer to seller core commerce, digital media and entertainment,innovation [charges merchants fees to appear higher on searchrankings—similar to Google’s core business]
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Website
Single, Amazon Web site
www.amazon.com
Tabao.com (fee-free; supported by advertising)
Tmall.com (well-known consumer brands)
Alibaba.com
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Active customers
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?
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e-Commerce market share
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?
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e-Commerce profitability
High
Medium
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New business segments
Online subscription services (streaming music and videos)
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?
Online subscription services (streaming music and videos)
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Value-added initiatives
Amazon Web Services (AWS); cloud computing;
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Cloud-based streaming processing platform; personalization;development of e-ink to modify digital shelf price tags
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Stock ticker
NASDAQ: AMZN
NYSE: BABA
NASDAQ: EBAY
Or
NYSE: WMT
A review of these details relating to Amazon, Alibaba, eBay orWal-Mart should provide significant insight into ways in whichthese large organizations are similar, and ways in which they aredifferent. The following case questions will hopefullystretch your thinking to try to identify some of what we might seein the future.
While answering questions, choose either eBay or Walmart inaddition to Amazon and AliBaba, and use the same three companies inyour responses.