Unfortunately, there are very few traders who would sacrifice self-gain for the good of the world's market. And there were plenty of self-gain to be had.
I just don´t see how BABA is going to compete against Amazon here. The problem with China is that they do not reward IP or innovation.. their entire economy is built of providing knock-offs at cheaper rates. Amazon is entrenched in the west, for BABA to compete it is going to have to do something innovative here, and they just don´t do that. BABA is basically just Amazon that sells to China, it is nothing special and there is no reason it will gain traction in the US. People trust Amazon and BABA isn´t going to be cheaper because they don´t have as good as infrastructure here..
BABA is a huge company but I wouldn't be as concerned in isolation with its progress. But I would be more worried about the next wave of players in China that have been around for a long time but have been learning from BABA and the players in the West. I think US investors will be surprised as to just how big some of these 2nd-tier players are, and how developed they are. They don't have the brand presence in the West as yet, but that's the long-term strategy for a lot of Chinese companies - build or buy a presence/technology. That's exactly what Lenovo did with IBM's PC business. It won't be the last.
I am bearish on BABA for this reason. I think it has a more likely chance of losing marketshare in China than it does of gaining marketshare in the USA and EU. Building an effecient infrastructure in the USA that can compete pricewise with Amazon is going to take a long time and a lot of money.
