China's Alibaba to file IPO in America
CNN's Samuel Burke looks at vast array of sites owned by Alibaba and compares them to their western counterparts.
Alibaba is a holding group with a vast array of very successful subsidiaries. So I want to do some West vs East to show you just how many companies Alibaba has and compare them to some of their well-known counterparts in the west. First, we have eBay known for its auctions. Alibaba? Well, they have this company: Taobao.com. Then we have price comparison websites like Nextag, also Google Shopping. Alibaba? They have this website: Etao.com. Then we move on the Amazon.com. Alibaba? They have this website: Tmall.com. Although it's a bit different because Amazon actually sells products themselves, whilst Tmall.com is simply the middleman between merchants and buyers. Then we have sites like Paypal.com for online transactions. Alibaba? They have this website and platform: Alipay.com. And just to give you an idea of how many different types of products they have: you may have heard Dropbox in the west, well Alibaba, they have their own cloud system proceeding clouds across platforms. Theirs is called Aliyun.com. To put all these numbers into contact: Cyber Monday, sowell-known in the United States, in total that brings in 1.4 billion dollar in sales across very many companies in the United States. In China, on their guanggun Singles' Day, just on Alibaba's platform alone, 5.75 billion dollars in transaction. And that gives you an idea of just how important and big this IPO here in New York might be. Samuel Burke, CNN, New York.