Company profile
SEC EDGAR ↗- Industry
- Services-Business Services, NEC
- Listed
- NYSE: BABA
- Incorporated
- Hong Kong
- Headquarters
- Causeway Bay
Financials
FY2026- Revenue
- $148.4B
- Net income
- $15.0B
- Total assets
- $276.8B
| Fiscal year | Revenue | Net income | Total assets |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2026 | $148.4B | $15.0B | $276.8B |
| FY2025 | $137.3B | $17.9B | $248.6B |
| FY2024 | $130.3B | $11.1B | $244.4B |
| FY2023 | $126.5B | $10.6B | $255.3B |
| FY2022 | $134.6B | $9.82B | $267.5B |
| FY2021 | $109.5B | $23.0B | $258.0B |
Reported fiscal years from SEC filings (20-F) — SEC EDGAR ↗. Stratrix is a strategy publication, not a real-time financial data service.
Decisions on record
4 verified Decision Records on Alibaba, and the casebook each one belongs to.
| Fork date | Decision type | The story | Casebook |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Market-Entry Gambit | Read the story → | Market-Entry Gambit Casebook → |
| 2011 | The Flywheel | Read the story → | The Flywheel Casebook → |
| 2022 | Market-Entry Gambit | Read the story → | Market-Entry Gambit Casebook → |
| 2023 | Cannibalization Choice | Read the story → | Cannibalization Choice Casebook → |
Run one of these yourself
The decisions Alibaba faced, as kits you can run.
Each pack takes one of these decisions and gives you the framework, a deck for the room, a model that resolves to one number, and the sourced cases behind it. $499, one-time.
Business ModelThe Money MachineWhere does the money actually come from, and who sets the rate it comes in at?See the pack →Decision ForksThe CannibalizationShould you launch the thing that takes revenue from your best business?See the pack →Crisis & ReinventionThe Crisis ResponseWhat is one more quarter of not acting worth?See the pack →
The analyses
The Money Machine · Business Model
Alibaba's Flywheel Still Spins. The Question Is How Hard the Wind Now Blows Against It.
Alibaba's marketplace flywheel is taught as a self-reinforcing monopoly. But PDD passed it in active buyers by 2021, its share of China online retail fell from ~72% to ~62% in a single year, and the take rate it spins on is compressing.
8 min
The Money Machine · Business Model
Alibaba's Real Money Machine Is an Ad Network Wearing a Mall Costume
Everyone calls Alibaba 'the Amazon of China,' but its profit engine isn't selling goods - it's charging merchants to be found. On RMB 941B of FY2024 revenue, the structural moat is search fees, not inventory. Except the 'zero inventory' story is a myth: RMB 110B of direct sales says otherwise.
8 min
The Cannibalization Choice · Growth & Portfolio
Alibaba Promised to Break Itself Into Six. A Year Later It Was Quietly Gluing the Pieces Back On.
In March 2023 Alibaba announced a six-way breakup to unlock value. By March 2024 the Cloud spin-off was dead, the Cainiao IPO was withdrawn for a re-absorption worth up to $3.75 billion, Freshippo's listing was deferred, and the plan's architect had left.
8 min
The Crisis Response · Crisis & Reinvention
The Rules That Killed Ant's $34.5B IPO Were Over a Year in the Making When Jack Ma Spoke
The story is tidy: Jack Ma insulted Beijing, and 36 hours later the $34.5 billion Ant IPO died. But regulators had been working on the lending rules that killed it for over a year before he spoke. The speech wasn't the cause. It was the cover story.
8 min
The Flywheel · Moat & Competition
Alibaba's Flywheel Spun on Coercion. Then the Regulators Drained It.
Alibaba's loop of merchants, shoppers, data, and cloud looks self-sustaining. But a core gear was a 'choose one of two' exclusivity scheme that drew an ¥18.2 billion fine in 2021 - and didn't stop Pinduoduo from overtaking it that same March.
8 min
The Flywheel · Moat & Competition
Alibaba Built the Perfect Flywheel. Then It Tore Out the Best Part.
The legend says marketplace and payments compounded into one unstoppable loop. The reality: in 2011 the most valuable node was transferred to Jack Ma without the board's approval, and regulators later decoupled the rest. The flywheel is now a toll road.
8 min
The Market-Entry Gambit · Growth & Portfolio
eBay Had 85% of China's C2C Market — a Free Alibaba Marketplace Erased It in Three Years
When eBay bought its way into China in 2003 with 85% of the C2C market, Alibaba had no consumer marketplace at all. Three years later eBay was gone. The reason wasn't a better product - it was a free one that solved a problem eBay's global model couldn't.
7 min
The Market-Entry Gambit · Growth & Portfolio
Alibaba Built the World's Biggest Sale. Now It Won't Tell You What It Sold.
In 2009, 27 merchants ran a quiet promotion on Tmall. By 2021 the same date moved $84.5 billion. Then Alibaba went dark - it has refused to publish a Singles' Day GMV figure every year since 2022. The silence is the strategy, and it's telling you something.
7 min