Last Updated on March 19, 2022 by QCity Editorial Stuff
Alibaba and Amazon are two of the largest online retailers in the world. Alibaba is based in China while Amazon has its headquarters in Seattle, Washington.
Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 whereas Alibaba was founded by Jack Ma in 1999. Alibaba operates internationally with offices across Asia, Europe, North America, and South America, whereas Amazon only serves customers domestically within the United States of America (USA).
Although both companies sell pretty much everything you can think of on their websites including but not limited to appliances, clothing, food, home goods, etc., they each have some differences that make them unique from one another.
Alibaba is a Chinese e-commerce giant that has been in existence for almost two decades while Amazon, the American company, is just over twenty years old. The main difference between these two companies is their business models. Alibaba focuses on wholesale and wholesaling of items rather than retailing them to customers while Amazon does the opposite. Another major difference between these two giants is their revenue sources. While both have different ways of generating income, Alibaba’s primary source of revenue comes from advertising while Amazon relies mainly on its commission fees and product sales.
Comparison Between Alibaba And Amazon
| Parameters of Comparison | Alibaba | Amazon |
| Company | Chinese company | American company |
| Founded | Alibaba has been in business for over 15 years | Amazon was founded in 1994 |
| Headquarter | Alibaba’s headquarters are located in Hangzhou | Amazon’s headquarters are based out of Seattle, Washington |
| Sold | Popular item | Poluper item |
| Price | Low price | High price |
What Is Alibaba?
Alibaba is the largest e-commerce company in China, and one of the world’s most valuable. Founded by Jack Ma in 1999, Alibaba has grown to have over 500 million users on its various online marketplaces. The company also operates several other businesses including an online payment system, an internet finance arm that includes Alipay, and cloud computing services. As of June 2018, Alibaba had a total valuation of USD 410 billion making it larger than Facebook or Amazon. In September 2015 they raised $25 billion in 10 days with their IPO which was the largest ever for any kind of company in history – even surpassing Apple’s 2010 IPO. Today it is valued at nearly 6 times that amount.
Alibaba is a Chinese e-commerce company best known for its online shopping websites. today it’s one of the largest internet companies in the world. The company has grown so large because it operates multiple business units including Taobao Marketplace, Tmall.com, AliExpress, and Alibaba Group Holding Limited. These segments allow customers to shop from traditional retail stores or small businesses all over China and other countries through one website.
The Alibaba Group also includes Alipay, an online payment system that offers consumers more than just an easy way to pay for things they’ve bought online; instead, Alipay allows you to transfer funds between users without having any cash on hand at all.
What Is Amazon?
Amazon is a company that was founded in 1994. It started as an online bookstore but has since expanded into the largest retailer of everything from books to clothes and electronics. In recent years they have been diversifying their business by offering products like Amazon Prime which offers free 2-day shipping on most items for just $99 per year or you can pay $10.99/month for this service. There are also many other services offered through Amazon such as Amazon Web Services, Kindle Direct Publishing, and Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). They offer similar products at different prices so it’s important to do your research before making any purchases.
It’s the largest Internet-based retailer in the United States and has expanded to other countries. The website started as an online bookstore but soon diversified to sell DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs, video downloads/streaming, MP3 downloads/streaming, audiobook downloads/streaming, software (notably Amazon Kindle), electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys & games, jewelry /luxury goods.
In addition to its retail functions it also provides media publishing services via its Amazon Publishing division; produces consumer electronics including Fire tablets and Fire TV; develops consumer electronics and its line of Kindle e-readers; offers a shopping guarantee; provides one of the web’s largest travel sites, and provides data centers that support its e-commerce and other internal computing needs.
10 Differences Between Alibaba And Amazon
1. Alibaba is a Chinese company and Amazon is an American company.
2. Alibaba has been in business for over 15 years while Amazon was founded in 1994.
3. Alibaba’s headquarters are located in Hangzhou, China, and Amazon’s headquarters are based out of Seattle, Washington.
4. The most popular product sold on Alibaba is clothing whereas the most popular item is sold on Amazon books.
5. On average, it takes 5-10 days to ship products from China to America with shipping costs typically being $2-$4 per kilo whereas shipping times vary depending on location and can cost as little as $6 or more than $50 per parcel.
6. You need a credit card to shop on Alibaba but you can use cash or your debit card when shopping at Amazon.
7. There are more than 100 million registered users on Alibaba.
8. The majority of items sold on Amazon are new, while most things sold on Alibaba are used or refurbished goods.
9. You can’t buy anything from your home country on Alibaba because they don’t ship internationally; you have to be located within one of their warehouses to purchase something.
10. Amazon has more than 900 million products available for purchase.
Interesting Statistics Or Facts Of Alibaba
1. Alibaba’s founder, Jack Ma, has a net worth of $22.7 billion.
2. The company is valued at $230 billion.
3. It employs 27,000 people in China and 40% of its employees are women.
4. Alibaba is the world’s largest retail site in terms of gross merchandise volume (GMV).
5. In 2017, it generated over $26 billion in revenue from online sales alone.
6. 80% of all purchases on Alibaba come from mobile devices and 60% of those purchases come from first-time buyers.
Interesting Statistics Or Facts Of Amazon
1. Amazon is the largest online retailer in the world.
2. The company was founded by Jeff Bezos on July 5, 1994.
3. In 2017, Amazon’s net income increased to $2 billion from $628 million in 2016.
4. As of December 31st, 2017, 180 private companies had a higher market value than Amazon.
5. There are over 20 countries where you can buy and ship items from Amazon.
6. In 2015, it became one of the top 10 US retailers with Walmart and Target being ranked before it.
Conclusion About The Differences Between Alibaba And Amazon
Alibaba and Amazon are two of the biggest Chinese e-commerce companies. Alibaba is more focused on business to the consumer whereas Amazon has a focus on both B2C and B2B sales as well as international sellers. -There are many advantages but also disadvantages for each company, such as lower costs for setting up shop with Alibaba versus being able to sell internationally through Amazon’s FBA program. –Alibaba’s Taobao marketplace is estimated at 80% market share in China while there were no estimates available from Bloomberg about how much of the global online retail market share that they have captured so far.
Alibaba operates Tmall for shopping, Taobao Marketplace for online auctions, Juhuasuan as a comparison pricing platform for products on its sites and others’ websites, Alipay Wallet (a PayPal competitor), AliExpress (an eBay competitor), 1688.com (China’s most popular wholesale website) ̶ all of which are used extensively across China ̶ plus many international operations including English versions of each site with localized domain names like aliexpress.com or tmall.com that cater specifically to non-Chinese customers.
References:
Resource 01: https://www.amazon.com/
Resource 02: https://www.alibaba.com/
