In fiscal year 20 18, Alibaba's net profit was close to 70 billion RMB, or about 10 billion USD. In the same period, Amazon was around $3 billion, and the gap was not particularly large. But in 20 18, Amazon's net profit is the sum of the net profit of the past 20 years. Therefore, there is still a difference between Alibaba and Amazon in attracting gold.
This is mainly due to the difference between the two modes. Amazon is mainly self-operated, and its own procurement, operation and sales, logistics, customer service and after-sales are all Amazon's own. Therefore, the cost of investment during this period is very high, especially in logistics.
Alibaba, on the other hand, mainly provides a platform. Basic pre-sale and pre-sale communication, product design and so on are all done by merchants themselves, and logistics is also assisted by many companies. Therefore, Alibaba's operating costs are relatively low and its profit margin is high.
But Amazon is different from Alibaba. The scope of Amazon is much larger than that of Alibaba, which is mainly concentrated in China. From this perspective, Amazon may be attacked by local factions and other enterprises in the future, especially when Europe tries to get rid of the United States. This is a very likely thing, and there are still great opportunities for Alibaba's overseas expansion. From the perspective of e-commerce, Alibaba's market is more stable.
At the same time, Alibaba's scope is higher than Amazon's. Alibaba involves finance, chips, systems, environmental protection, cloud computing and so on. And Amazon is slightly inferior to Ali in business scope. At this point, both have their own advantages and disadvantages.
On the whole, in the context of the rise of Greater China, Ali's prospects are better than Amazon's.
Amazon and Alibaba represent two modes of e-commerce. One mode is the former's big platform selling mode, and the other is the latter's building department stores to help more people sell goods, so one is heavy assets and the other is light assets. But at present, the market value of Amazon is more than twice that of Alibaba, and its share price continues to rise.
By September 25th, 20 18, Alibaba's market value was $41960 million, Amazon's market value was $943.6 billion, and Amazon's market value was 2.24 times that of Alibaba. In fiscal year 20 18, Alibaba group's revenue was 250.266 billion yuan, and Amazon's net sales were 60.453 billion dollars (about 4 152 billion yuan).
The following are the market value and stock price of Amazon, with a market value of 943.4 billion US dollars, which may be the second company in the world with a market value of over one trillion, second only to Apple.
The following is the market value of Alibaba, 465,438 USD+09.6 billion. Recently, the stock market in general, Alibaba from the peak market value of 560 billion dollars fell to 419.6 billion dollars.
Then why do the two companies get twice the income from Amazon and twice the market value from Alibaba, but Amazon's net profit is only $654.38+08 billion, while Alibaba has a net profit of $9.6 billion, which is a huge difference?
Because the business models of the two companies are different.
Amazon is a self-employed, that is to say, it is a platform, and all products are sold by itself, which is equivalent to the early mode of Apprentice JD.COM. Therefore, Amazon needs its own warehouse and its own operation team to do sales, and the gross profit is of course average.
But Alibaba is a platform, and its philosophy is to help small and medium-sized enterprises sell goods and collect their own rent and advertising fees. Therefore, Alibaba is a light mode. As long as the platform exists, there will be revenue, and the gross profit is scary. Alibaba only needs to build infrastructure, but Amazon must do all the work by itself.
In addition, the two companies have different ideas.
Amazon's core model is to make money in the future, so Amazon itself is meager profit. Amazon was in a state of slight loss in the previous 13 years, just to expand the market, become an industry monopolist and finally get more profits.
Alibaba mainly serves small businesses and does infrastructure. When its business reaches an inflection point, it will be profitable. As long as it is profitable, it will not lose money again.
However, the two companies are more and more alike, both are doing cloud business, both are slowly building platforms, and both want to be self-employed. There will definitely be a war between Alibaba and Amazon in the future.
Are you more optimistic about Alibaba or Amazon mode?
Because Amazon pays more attention to the company's cash flow and business scale, it does not pay attention to net profit in financial statements.
The financial report shows that in the first three quarters of 2065438+2007, Amazon's operating income was11741300 million US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 27.28%; The net profit was $65,438+065,438+$76 million, a year-on-year decrease of 27.5%.
However, Alibaba's fiscal year is inconsistent with the normal year. If you want to get the performance data of1-September, you need to calculate it. Through calculation, Alibaba's operating income in 20 1710-September was 215.53 million USD, and its net profit was 6.442 billion USD. Due to the different business models of Amazon and Ali, it is not convincing to compare operating income. Amazon's net profit is 18.26% of Alibaba's in the same period.
However, the share prices of the two companies are opposite to the net profit level. As of 2018 65438+1October 23rd, Amazon's share price was $65438 +0327.3 1, with a total market value of $636.9 billion. According to the reset share price, Amazon's share price has increased by 1000 times from $65,438 +0.3 at the beginning of listing, reaching $65,438+0,327.31.
As of 201865438+1October 23rd, Alibaba's share price was USD 65438+USD 084.02, with a total market value of USD 465.5 billion. Amazon's market value exceeds Alibaba's170 billion dollars.
Amazon 1997 is listed on NASDAQ. In the first annual report after listing, Amazon founder Bezos attached a letter to shareholders, which will be attached to the letter to shareholders every year.
In fact, this difference is not only reflected in 20 13, but also in the latest financial report data. 20 17 in the third quarter, Amazon's revenue was $43.7 billion, while Alibaba's revenue was $8.29 billion in the same period. In terms of net profit, Amazon was $270 million in the third quarter, and Ali reached $2.62 billion.
For many years, there has been a huge contrast between income and net profit. The main reason lies in the business models of the two companies.
In a word, Amazon takes the asset model seriously and Ali takes the asset model lightly.
Judging from its huge revenue scale, Amazon does not make money, but invests the money it earns in product innovation and infrastructure, which makes the annual operating cost huge, leading to a huge contrast between revenue and net profit, especially compared with Aribi.
Moreover, Amazon has been unprofitable for more than 20 years, and has also spent energy and money on the construction of e-commerce infrastructure.
The specific differences between the two business models are as follows:
Amazon buys its own goods, builds its own warehouse, sets up its own logistics team, opens its own website and sells its own goods. In domestic terms, it is the "self-operated" model, which is "JD". COM mode ".
In fact, JD.COM studied Amazon, but Amazon's business scope is wider than that of JD.COM now, and huge investment will inevitably lead to low profits. For example, JD.COM has been losing money in China.
Ali built his own market (Tmall and Taobao platforms), and then invited third-party merchants to sell things on his own platform. Logistics is the third party, so is logistics.
All the infrastructure and operating costs are basically third parties, which only undertake the development, maintenance, operation and marketing of the platform. These maintenance and promotion costs are relatively low, and you can charge booth fees, promotion fees and all sales commissions from the manufacturers, so the profit rate is high.
Professor T said
I'm glad to answer your question. Although Alibaba is the absolute big brother in the field of e-commerce in China, it is not the case in the world, because after all, there is an Amazon ahead!
Amazon is now the second largest company in the world by market value, second only to Apple. Not only that, Amazon's market value is more than twice that of Alibaba.
In terms of sales revenue, in fiscal year 20 18, Amazon's revenue reached more than 4 10 billion, while Alibaba only had more than 250 billion. So in terms of sales, Amazon is also crushing!
But sales are not equal to the money actually earned. We all know that how much money a company actually earns depends on its net profit. If you compare the net profit of Ali and Amazon, you will get a strange answer! Although Ali's sales are only over 250 billion, its net profit is as high as 9.6 billion dollars. However, although Amazon's sales are as high as 4 10 billion, its net profit is only a pitiful $654,388+0.8 billion!
Why is this happening?
It's actually quite simple. You can think of Amazon as JD.COM in China. Because Amazon, like JD.COM, most of its products are self-operated, and it also builds its own logistics warehouse. So in terms of assets, it is a heavy asset.
But Ali is different. Ali is just a C2C platform, and it is enough to collect rent every day. So from the perspective of net profit, Ali's affirmation is high, because the investment is small.
But in the long run, Amazon and JD.COM are likely to earn more than Ali in the future!
A few years ago, a picture from Amazon was circulated on the Internet. To be precise, it was painted on a napkin by Jeff Bezos, CEO of the company. Note that there is no arrow pointing to "profit" in this picture. This is a closed circulatory system.
Bezos is not interested in profit, but he is very interested in changing the world.
Since its establishment nearly 20 years ago, Amazon has not made considerable profits so far. Although the net profit of 237 10 billion reached a record high in 20 16, it was mainly due to its low net profit in previous years, such as negative net profit in 20 14 and 20 12.
But this does not really reflect Amazon's business situation, nor does it affect investors' long-term pursuit. 20 17, Amazon shares rose by 65%; 2018,65438+1On October 26th, Amazon's share price closed up 1.75% to 1402.05 USD per share, which was the first time in history to break through 1400 USD.
So where did all Amazon's money go?
Amazon is not a traditional company, and it is unwise to value it only by its net profit. The important thing is that Amazon knows how to grow, regardless of profit. What I really care about is how to allocate resources to tap new business and achieve growth.
First, develop user growth and experience.
Amazon's mature businesses, such as online retailing, are highly profitable, but Amazon wants to become the most customer-centric enterprise in the world, emphasizing customer experience and innovation, and it is endless.
Some goods are sold at cost or at a loss in exchange for Amazon's network traffic and user loyalty. The most obvious example is its Prime service. This service incorporates entertainment content to enhance the appeal of becoming a Prime member. These entertainment contents only constitute the fixed cost of Amazon, not the marginal cost. If you only consider the profit of video, it is difficult for you to understand Amazon's real intention.
Amazon is committed to establishing a complete procurement, ordering and logistics system. Amazon did not choose the zero-inventory method like Taobao in inventory management, but invested heavily to establish its own physical asset network and then managed it by itself. If you can't figure it out, you can think of JD.COM in China. At present, Amazon has 1 1 9 distribution centers in the United States, and also has distribution centers in European countries such as Britain, France and Germany, as well as Asian countries such as Japan and China. At the same time, through the electronic data interchange system (EDI), customers can check the order status and track their own packages at any time. Amazon believes that this direct logistics distribution model may mean increasing costs for B2C websites, but it is very important to control the consumer experience in the whole process.
Amazon has also been building its own fashion empire by acquiring various emerging fashion projects, such as Zappos and Shopbop acquired earlier. Amazon 20 17 just acquired BodyLabs, a 3D human data model technology company. Through the advanced technology and intelligent system owned by BodyLabs, the anthropometric data of millions of paid members can be easily obtained through on-site measurement and modeling in hundreds of fashion store systems. After that, through system data matching, Amazon can establish a system that includes matching data such as consumers' physical measurement data, shopping habits, browsing records and background information.
Second, continue to bet on future technologies.
As of March, 20 17, in the past two months, Amazon invested17.4 billion dollars in R&D expenses. However, in its financial report, Amazon did not explicitly report R&D expenses, but included them as "technology and content" costs in operating expenses. According to the financial report, "technology costs are mainly composed of R&D activities, including employee salaries, related applications of existing and new products/services, production, maintenance, operation and development costs, and AWS costs." At present, compared with overseas giants in the same industry, domestic Internet companies invest significantly less in technology research and development. Ma Yun said that in the next three years, he will invest more than10 billion yuan in Dharma Institute, which is just equivalent to Amazon's annual R&D investment.
AWS is Amazon's cloud computing business. Although AWS currently accounts for the smallest proportion of Amazon's three types of businesses, cloud computing is one of the most capital-intensive industries in the world after all. Amazon's main fixed asset investment in AWS comes from leasing. Due to the short depreciation time of the server, Amazon accrues a high depreciation fee every year.
The computing power that AWS can provide at present is equivalent to the sum of the computing power provided by its 14 competitors. In addition to traditional big data, AWS will invest a lot of resources in the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence in the future.
AWS only accounts for a part of 654.38+074 billion knives, but not all of them. Amazon is seeking to become the mainstream provider of artificial intelligence as a service. In the letter to shareholders from April 2065438 to April 2007, Bezos wrote in detail that AI and machine learning technology are the focus of the company's new projects aimed at maintaining its industry position and competitive advantage. Home assistants based on voice technology will soon be popular among American consumers, and Amazon will occupy 70% of the market.
2018 65438+1On October 22nd, Amazon Go, an unmanned supermarket in Amazon, opened, which shocked the whole world. You just need to fill up your shopping bag, so you don't have to wait in line to check out. When you are away from home, your Amazon account will automatically help you check out. It took Amazon at least five years to develop this "just go out" technology, which is similar to unmanned identification technology.
As the saying goes, profits are imaginary and cash is real. In fact, the actual free cash flow (FCF) can better reflect the real situation of Amazon.
Free cash flow refers to the cash flow that the company can return to investors (including equity investors and creditor investors) after maintaining normal business development and reinvestment. This concept originated in the United States in the 1980s. Because the profit index can't truly reflect the company's health (such as a large number of accounts receivable in income), people begin to evaluate the company's value from the perspective of cash flow. In today's United States, the discounted free cash flow method has always been the most widely used valuation model. The US Securities Regulatory Commission requires listed companies to disclose this indicator. Amazon's free cash flow (FCF) is indeed growing faster than its net profit.
The reason is simple, because most of the money made by Amazon is spent, and it is the kind of investment that takes a long time to catch big fish and has a long return period. For example, the world's strongest automated warehousing system, self-operated logistics, smart speakers, and Bezos' commercial space company Blue Origin.
It is said that every time Bezos sells Amazon stock, he will invest money in Blue Origin, which was dubbed "selling books" by American netizens at that time. Although the origin of blue is a company under Bezos' personal name, a large part of Bezos' money still comes from Amazon. Moreover, this company has no actual combat experience since 16, and all of them are engaged in secret research. In other words, 16 never earned 1 cent, which was supported by Bezos' investment. It is conceivable how much it will cost to study rocket recovery and manned flight.
On the contrary, Alibaba's e-commerce is a platform-based thinking from the beginning, and it doesn't need to sell itself or build logistics facilities, so the cost is naturally low. Moreover, because Ma Yun's e-commerce is the strongest, he will do payment, film and television entertainment, express delivery business and so on. , are acquisitions and holdings. These are the consumption scenes closest to money, and Ali's profit is not high.
In addition, there is no doubt that Amazon is one of the companies with the highest R&D investment in the world. The investment in the last fiscal year was as high as 1.6 1 billion USD, ranking first in the world. Ali doesn't seem to be in the top ten. Of course, if we have to say Ma Yun's Dharma Institute, it will mean a three-year investment of 654.38 billion, but it has just been established. Amazon's research and development expenses for one year, converted into RMB, have been the same as Ali's investment for three years.
This is also the reason why Amazon has been unprofitable for nearly 20 years and its valuation can be higher than that of Alibaba.
Amazon and JD.COM are a model, which is an ancient traditional model. They buy goods from manufacturers or purchasing agents and then sell them on their own websites, and then set up their own logistics companies to deliver goods to customers! ! In fact, it is a middleman! ! Amazon or JD.COM sells things to consumers and makes money by themselves. Tmall Taobao doesn't sell things by itself, so people and manufacturers can sell things on their own platforms and then charge advertising fees. Think about it carefully, who is better for society in these two modes? When JD.COM becomes the only e-commerce company in China, manufacturers have no right to speak and consumers have no right to choose. What about the physical industry? Because the manufacturer can't control the price at all, understand? As for Alibaba, the price on Taobao is market competition, Taobao does not participate in pricing, and ordinary sellers and manufacturers can participate. For example, the ex-factory price of a refrigerator is 1000 yuan, JD.COM reduced the price to 950 yuan due to bulk purchase, and then JD.COM listed it as 1200 yuan, and JD.COM benefited from 250 yuan. As a manufacturer, the flagship store of Tmall refrigerator manufacturer cannot rely solely on JD.COM. So he also sells 1, 200 yuan, and then the general agent of the factory in a large area also wants to buy goods from 950 yuan in order to run, but he also sells this refrigerator in Taobao for only 1, 654,38+0,000 yuan, because he wants to run, the manufacturer's index must be fulfilled, and then consumers can buy the same thing at a cheaper price in Taobao. As for after-sales, as long as it is now! Actually, JD The self-management of COM means that second-hand dealers take goods from our manufacturers and then sell them themselves. Countless historical experiences tell us that the stronger the second-hand dealers are, the more the manufacturers and consumers suffer! When the second-hand dealers are strong enough to monopolize their own business and have no competitors, that is the most unfortunate time for the country, entity enterprises and consumers!
Commentator Menning:
The data listed in the title is the financial year of 20 13, which is a long history for internet companies. Let's compare the latest data:
In the first half of this year (20 18H 1), Amazon's operating income103.9 billion USD and Alibaba's operating income142.8 billion RMB. Amazon's operating income is equivalent to five Alibaba. In terms of net profit, Amazon achieved a net profit of $4163 million, Alibaba achieved a net profit of162.4 million, and Amazon's net profit returned to its mother was less than twice that of Alibaba.
Both are e-commerce giants. Why is the profit gap so big? This should start with the differences between the two modes.
First of all, their main source of income is e-commerce.
Both Amazon and Alibaba started from e-commerce. At present, relying on the advantages accumulated in the field of e-commerce, they have invested heavily in scientific research and development, and gradually developed into a world technology giant. Especially Amazon, its technologies in the fields of cloud computing and artificial intelligence are among the best in the world.
However, the transformation of technology into revenue and profit requires successful commercial application. At present, the main source of income of the two companies is still e-commerce. Alibaba's main revenue comes from domestic e-commerce, which accounts for 80% of Alibaba's total revenue in the past five years.
Amazon is a global e-commerce company, and 90% of its revenue comes from global e-commerce (including the United States).
Second, the same online mall, different business models.
Alibaba's e-commerce platforms are mainly Taobao and Tmall, and Amazon is the platform of the same name. Although both giants are engaged in e-commerce business, their business models are quite different.
Alibaba is mainly a platform, and countless third-party merchants have settled in Taobao and Tmall, earning income from advertising revenue and management fees. The advantage of this is very obvious, that is, it can attract super huge traffic into the platform, and Alibaba can maintain its operation without spending too much people, material resources and financial resources, and the high profit is also logical. But the disadvantage is that the management of third-party businesses is difficult and there are many fakes.
Amazon is not only a platform, but also self-operated. Self-management is equivalent to opening an online supermarket, and the profit rate is equivalent to that of retail industry, even lower than that of ordinary retail industry, so the operating income will be high, but the profit is not necessarily too high.
Third, Amazon is more keen on technology investment.
Amazon's boss Bezos is obsessed with investing in the future. Last year, Amazon burned $23 billion for R&D, while Alibaba's investment in R&D was only $22.75 billion, a difference of 1 dollar.
Therefore, even though Amazon has lost money for 13 years, investors are still determined to be more Amazon. The total market value of Amazon is far from that of Alibaba (the market value of Amazon is about 2.4 times that of Ali).
Ali has realized the importance of scientific research and development, and established the Dharma Institute, claiming to invest 654.38 billion yuan in basic research. We expect Alibaba to bring more surprises to Chinese people in the fields of chips, artificial intelligence and cloud computing.
Ali needs to keep working hard.
Both are e-commerce giants. Why is the profit gap so big? This should start with the differences between the two modes.
First of all, their main source of income is e-commerce.
Both Amazon and Alibaba started from e-commerce. At present, relying on the advantages accumulated in the field of e-commerce, they have invested heavily in scientific research and development, and gradually developed into a world technology giant. Especially Amazon, its technologies in the fields of cloud computing and artificial intelligence are among the best in the world.
However, the transformation of technology into revenue and profit requires successful commercial application. At present, the main source of income of the two companies is still e-commerce. Alibaba's main revenue comes from domestic e-commerce, which accounts for 80% of Alibaba's total revenue in the past five years.
Amazon is a global e-commerce company, and 90% of its revenue comes from global e-commerce (including the United States).
Second, the same online mall, different business models.
Alibaba's e-commerce platforms are mainly Taobao and Tmall, and Amazon is the platform of the same name. Although both giants are engaged in e-commerce business, their business models are quite different.
Alibaba is mainly a platform, and countless third-party merchants have settled in Taobao and Tmall, earning income from advertising revenue and management fees. The advantage of this is very obvious, that is, it can attract super huge traffic into the platform, and Alibaba can maintain its operation without spending too much people, material resources and financial resources, and the high profit is also logical. But the disadvantage is that the management of third-party businesses is difficult and there are many fakes.
Amazon is not only a platform, but also self-operated. Self-management is equivalent to opening an online supermarket, and the profit rate is equivalent to that of retail industry, even lower than that of ordinary retail industry, so the operating income will be high, but the profit is not necessarily too high.
Third, Amazon is more keen on technology investment.
Amazon's boss Bezos is obsessed with investing in the future. Last year, Amazon burned $23 billion for R&D, while Alibaba's investment in R&D was only $22.75 billion, a difference of 1 dollar.
Therefore, even though Amazon has lost money for 13 years, investors are still determined to be more Amazon. The total market value of Amazon is far from that of Alibaba (the market value of Amazon is about 2.4 times that of Ali).
Ali has realized the importance of scientific research and development, and established the Dharma Institute, claiming to invest 654.38 billion yuan in basic research. We expect Alibaba to bring more surprises to Chinese people in the fields of chips, artificial intelligence and cloud computing.