China rolled out sweeping new rules on Wednesday to rein in aggressive competition in e-commerce, banning major platforms such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE:BABA) from forcing online merchants into promotions or deep discounts. The regulations, which take effect in February, follow repeated warnings from Beijing to Alibaba, JD.com Inc. (NASDAQ:JD), and Meituan (OTC:MPNGY) to stop pressuring sellers with pricing tactics that regulators say disrupt market order. Authorities also issued separate rule ...

Core Viewpoint - Alibaba and Tencent are two major Chinese tech companies with distinct business models and growth trajectories, facing challenges from regulatory scrutiny and market competition, making their long-term investment reliability a subject of debate [1][2]. Alibaba - Alibaba's revenue primarily comes from its two main marketplaces, Taobao and Tmall, with a smaller portion from its cloud infrastructure business, which has lower margins [4]. - Over the past five years, Alibaba's stock has declined by nearly 40%, attributed to cooling economic growth, antitrust scrutiny, and trade tensions [2]. - Analysts project Alibaba's revenue and earnings per share (EPS) to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8% and 11%, respectively, from fiscal 2025 to fiscal 2028, indicating a stabilization phase rather than high growth [7]. - The company is expected to leverage AI-driven recommendations and logistics upgrades to stabilize its core businesses while expanding its international marketplaces [7]. Tencent - Tencent's primary growth driver is WeChat, a super app with over 1.41 billion monthly active users, alongside its video game publishing business [8]. - Tencent's stock has seen a modest increase of 6% over the past five years, facing challenges from competition and regulatory pressures in the gaming sector [2][10]. - Analysts forecast Tencent's revenue and EPS to grow at a CAGR of 11% and 15%, respectively, from 2024 to 2027, supported by the integration of AI into its services and expansion into fintech and business services [12]. - The company is diversifying its revenue streams by enhancing its fintech services and expanding its overseas gaming business to mitigate reliance on the Chinese market [11]. Investment Comparison - Alibaba is trading at 17 times its next year's earnings, while Tencent is at 20 times, with Alibaba appearing cheaper but growing at a slower rate [13]. - Tencent is viewed as a more stable growth option due to the irreplaceable nature of WeChat for its users, despite facing competition in advertising and gaming [13][14]. - Both companies could attract more investors if U.S.-China trade tensions ease, but Tencent's growth strategies seem more robust compared to Alibaba's [14].

Key Points Alibaba has invested more than $17 billion over the past year in AI and cloud infrastructure over the past year. Alibaba's AI-related product revenue has delivered growth north of 100% for nine consecutive quarters. Its cash cow e-commerce business is financing Alibaba's AI future, and you can buy the stock at a forward earnings multiple in the teens. 10 stocks we like better than Alibaba Group › There's an argument to be made that many artificial intelligence (AI) stocks are bargains ...

Key Points Alibaba's e-commerce business allows it to self-finance growth initiatives that may take years to bear fruit. Despite operating several money-losing ventures, Alibaba trades at an earnings multiple discount to the general market. Some of those bets -- like AI cloud hosting -- have already turned the corner of profitability. 10 stocks we like better than Alibaba Group › Imagine being able to attempt challenging aerial feats, knowing that you have the mother of all safety nets waiting f ...

Key Takeaways Shopee's GMV climbed over 28% year over year to $32.2B in Q3 2025.Sea Limited relied on shipping subsidies to drive orders, pushing the cost of services up 38.8%.Adjusted EBITDA margin stayed thin at 0.6% amid ongoing shipping and fulfillment pressure.Sea Limited’s (SE) heavy reliance on shipping subsidies has been a key catalyst behind Shopee’s strong GMV expansion, but it also raises concerns about how sustainable that momentum is. In the third quarter of 2025, Shopee delivered strong growth ...

Core Insights - Alibaba Group did not experience a dramatic comeback in 2025 but shifted its narrative towards long-term growth strategies [1] - The company clarified its priorities by focusing on cloud and artificial intelligence, stabilizing its core e-commerce business, and repositioning itself as a broader technology and AI platform [2] Cloud and AI as Growth Engines - Alibaba Cloud emerged as the primary growth engine, with a reported cloud revenue growth of 34% year over year in the September 2025 quarter, driven by AI demand [4] - AI-related cloud revenue continued to grow at triple-digit rates, confirming the monetization of Alibaba's cloud business [5] - Alibaba now serves as a core infrastructure provider for AI adoption in China, with its cloud platform resembling the roles of Amazon's AWS and Microsoft's Azure [6][7] E-commerce Stabilization - The core e-commerce business showed signs of stabilization, with customer management revenue returning to 10% growth in the half year ended September 30, 2025 [9] - Investors began viewing Alibaba's e-commerce as a mature foundation that supports investment in newer growth areas, rather than a declining asset [10][11] Strategic Repositioning - Alibaba is redefining itself as a technology and AI platform, emphasizing its role in cloud and AI services rather than solely as an e-commerce leader [12][14] - This strategic shift expands Alibaba's growth opportunities, moving beyond the natural limits of a commerce-only model [15] Investor Implications - The developments in 2025 provided coherence in Alibaba's growth narrative, with cloud and AI driving growth while e-commerce offers stability [16] - The company is seen as laying the groundwork for a more durable recovery, marking 2025 as a reset year rather than a comeback year [17]

Alibaba spent 2025 resetting its strategy. In 2026, it needs to prove that the reset works.Alibaba Group (BABA 0.41%) ended 2025 in a much stronger position than it began. Its cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) segments gained real momentum, e-commerce stabilized after years of pressure, and the company clarified its ambition to become a broader technology and AI platform rather than just a commerce giant.But 2025 was a reset year, not a confirmation year. For long-term investors, the real test begins i ...

Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Emerging Markets Fund” third-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The fund returned 10.89% (Institutional Shares) in the third quarter compared to a 10.64% return for the MSCI Emerging Markets Index (the Benchmark) and a 11.48% return for the MSCI Emerging Markets IMI Growth Index (the Proxy Benchmark). YTD, the fund returned 31.79% compared to 27.53% and 28.19% for the indexes. The firm was satisfied w ...

Core Insights - Alibaba is positioning itself as a key player in China's AI transformation, with significant growth in its cloud revenue and AI-related services [1][2][18] - The company has developed a vertically integrated AI stack, similar to Western counterparts like AWS and Azure, enhancing its competitive advantage [10][14] Group 1: AI Growth and Cloud Revenue - Alibaba Cloud experienced a 34% year-over-year revenue growth, significantly outpacing the company's overall growth rate [6] - AI-related cloud revenue has shown triple-digit growth for nine consecutive quarters, indicating a structural shift in the company's growth engine [6][18] - The demand for AI workloads is driving companies across various industries in China to adopt Alibaba Cloud for its scale and mature ecosystem [7][8] Group 2: Full-Stack AI Strategy - Alibaba's AI strategy includes a large language model, Tongyi Qianwen (Qwen), which supports various applications in customer service, productivity, and content generation [11][12] - The company is also developing domestic AI chips to reduce reliance on U.S. suppliers and lower costs, further strengthening its AI technology pipeline [13] - This multi-layered approach allows Alibaba to build the necessary infrastructure, models, and tools for Chinese enterprises, enhancing its competitive position [14] Group 3: Ecosystem and AI Application - Alibaba's extensive digital ecosystem allows for the application of AI at scale, enhancing product search, logistics, and enterprise tools [15][16] - The integration of AI across various platforms creates a flywheel effect, improving operations and user experience, which in turn attracts more users and generates more data [16][17] - This unique ability to embed AI across multiple touchpoints provides Alibaba with monetization opportunities beyond just cloud revenue [17] Group 4: Investment Perspective - The recent quarterly results indicate that Alibaba's transformation into a central player in China's AI landscape is gaining momentum [18] - For long-term investors, Alibaba represents a strategic opportunity to participate in the AI boom, positioning itself as the foundational layer for AI in China [19]

Core Viewpoint - Alibaba Group Holding is positioned as a strong investment opportunity in the AI cloud sector, potentially outperforming major competitors like Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet by 2026 [2][15]. Company Overview - Alibaba has a market capitalization of $375 billion, significantly smaller than the $2.5 trillion market caps of Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet [3]. - The company operates a global wholesale B2B marketplace, Alibaba.com, featuring over 5,900 product categories and more than 200 million products available for trade in over 200 countries [4]. E-commerce Performance - Alibaba's e-commerce revenue for the quarter ending September was $14.46 billion, reflecting a 9% year-over-year increase [5]. - Including "quick commerce" sales, Alibaba's total e-commerce revenue reached $18.62 billion, a 16% increase from the previous year, with international digital commerce revenue at $4.88 billion, up 10% [6]. - In comparison, Amazon's e-commerce revenue for the same quarter was $147.16 billion, with a 12% year-over-year growth [6]. AI Cloud Growth - Alibaba's Cloud Intelligence Group generated $5.59 billion in revenue for the September quarter, marking a 34% increase from the same period last year, driven by public cloud revenue growth and AI product adoption [10]. - The company holds a 35.8% market share in China's cloud computing market, the largest in the region [11]. Valuation and Future Outlook - Alibaba is noted for having the most attractive forward price-to-earnings and price-to-sales ratios among cloud computing stocks [12]. - Revenue growth for Alibaba is projected at 9% for the next fiscal year, surpassing expected growth rates for Amazon (1.45%) and Alphabet (4.7%), while Microsoft is expected to grow by 17.8% [14].