Alibaba’s pre-IPO roadshow videos are a must-watch

In advance of its upcoming IPO, Alibaba has released a series of videos explaining the company’s mission to potential investors.

The videos, which have been online for several days at Retail Roadshow, describe the company’s numerous shopping platforms and how each of them has impacted the lives of ordinary Chinese consumers. Despite the heartstring-plucking soundtrack and rosy tone, the clips nevertheless provide an excellent overview the company’s products and how it influences China’s retail infrastructure. If you’re hazy on the nuances behind Alibaba’s business model or numerous services, it’s well worth viewing.

The 40-minute opener is the one you’ll really want to watch, as vice executive chairman Joe Tsai and CFO Maggie Wu break down the company’s business model and growth. Unfortunately, it’s not embeddable, so we’ve taken some screenshots to capture the highlights.

From a birds-eye view: China is big, its internet penetration is big and getting bigger, its ecommerce market is big and getting bigger, and Alibaba is big and getting bigger. This sets the stage for big growth. Analysts placed China’s internet penetration at 46 percent for the year 2013 – more internet users, more potential Alibaba customers.

What better way to start off than by jabbing the big boys? Alibaba’s gross merchandise volume dwarfs that of Amazon and other like-minded companies, hitting US$248 billion in 2013, and US$296 billion for the year ending in June 2014. Of course, transaction volume is one thing, revenue and profits are another, but this is a roadshow video, so we’re here for some spectacle along with our statistics.

A handy graphic of Alibaba’s ecosystem – the outer blue ring consists of Alibaba-affiliated products and services that help draw users deeper into its marketplaces, listed in the middle white ring, where people buy and sell stuff.

Tsai repeatedly stressed how Alibaba’s markeplaces and peripheral services contain network effects – as more wholesalers get on Alibaba.com, more buyers flock to the site. Subsequently, as more small merchants buy stock on Alibaba.com and put it up for sale on Taobao.com, Taobao gets more customers.