Why Alibaba's Long Tail Makes Amazon's Look Like A Bobcat's
By Paul McWilliams
Introduction by Matt Schifrin at Forbes
Sometimes in order to get a better perspective on something, it pays to take a step back, distance yourself from the whatever you are trying to analyze. Overland Park, Kansas is pretty far from Sand Hill Road and any other tech epicenter, but when it comes to technology investing and trends, Kansan, Paul McWilliams is a cut above the rest. Tech visionary George Gilder first introduced him to me. Besides being an analyst and newsletter editor he is a frequent contributor to the Gilder Telecosm Forum.
The article below, on red hot Chinese IPO Alibaba, was recently written by McWilliams for boutique investment research firm Rivershore Capital. In the piece McWilliams explains why Alibaba’s long tail dwarfs Amazon’s. He also likens Jack Ma to a modern day Moses, delivering masses of poor Chinese from the futility of the Communist system to the promised land of opportunity created by Capitalism. It’s a bold statement that gives one pause when considering what a reasonable price-earnings multiple should be for Alibaba, once its stock is trading.
Says Paul, "At the foundation, Alibaba teaches us much about simple human nature–all we really want is opportunity. Give people real opportunity and they don’t have time to complain about who is in the lead–with real opportunity, human nature leads us all to believe we can improve our situation, and for some of us, dream that we might catch up to the leaders.”
Read Paul McWilliams' article here >
My friend, Rick Neaton, owner of Rivershore Capital provided a complimentary pdf version of Paul's article here: http://www.rivershorecapital.
