Of all the things Jack Ma thought he’d confront in 2017, a Donald Trump presidency wasn’t among them.
Much has been made of risks emanating from Trump’s anti-China worldview. It’s a particular concern for investors in Alibaba (BABA), the e-commerce juggernaut aiming to generate 50% of its revenue outside China. While Trump’s shocking win is slamming technology shares from the U.S. to China, the colossus Ma created is uniquely in harm’s way. Its scale, level of mainland penetration and global ambitions put Alibaba on the frontline of Trump’s whims. That makes Alibaba a singularly telling indicator of both Chinese growth shifts and Beijing-Washington relations.
First, the GDP angle. Arguably no Chinese name has more intimately tapped – and tied its fortunes to – the mainland’s nascent middle class. Alibaba’s grasp of the demographic that most excites Apple, Volkswagen and Uniqlo is firm and growing. On Nov. 11, China’s annual “Singles Day,” Alibaba raked in an astounding $18 billion in a 24-hour period. Amazon, who? Alibaba’s one-stop shop for everything from retailing to finance to travel to auctioneering to payments arguably makes its quarterly reports more useful than Beijing’s official gross domestic product figures. – READ MORE
