Alibaba’s massive IPO plans shift the focus from Silicon Valley to China

The recent big tech IPOs of companies like Facebook, Twitter and Tesla could all be dwarfed soon by a company with roots far outside Silicon Valley. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group just filed documents for its own offering (choosing to trade its stock in the US over Hong Kong) and while its value has not been determined, it could result in the biggest IPO ever when it’s all said and done. Alibaba built its empire on a number of online sales platforms described as a blend of Amazon, eBay and Paypal, and its reach is starting to include the US thanks to investments in companies like Lyft. Alibaba’s other well-known US links are from investment stakes held by Yahoo and Sprint’s owner Softbank, but once it offers shares on an exchange stateside — it hasn’t specified whether that’s NYSE or NASDAQ — that could change. So before its founder Jack Ma (who has retired as CEO last May but remains its executive chairman) snaps up the next Oculus VR out from under Mark Zuckerberg’s nose or we’re all shopping Tmall and Taobao for our same day-deliveries by drone, let’s get to know Alibaba.

[Image credit: Hong Wu/Getty Images]

[Image credit: PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images]

While the internet has connected the world in ways never seen before, many of the companies we’re familiar with have little direct contact with the 600 million+ people logged on in China. That extends not just to Alibaba, but also “China’s Google” search engine Baidu, fellow online store JD.com (which has already filed for an IPO in the US) and any number of others. Dr. Yan Anthea Zhang tells the New York Times we should expect to see competition between the sides heat up in the future, which in China has predictably gone the local’s way. Differences in the Chinese market and familiarity in dealing with government issues put your Silicon Valley standard bearers on awkward footing, and it will be interesting to see if the situation follows that pattern here.

In China, other than providing online shopping tools for other companies to build stores on and a PayPal-like electronics payment service called Alipay, Alibaba’s main consumer-facing offerings are Taobao and TaoBao Mall, or Tmall. The difference between Alibaba and Amazon is that even there, it doesn’t actually handle or ship the goods itself, it just provides the platform for a shop and customers deal with the brands directly. As analyst Kelland Willis describes to Mashable, it enables policies like paying cash on delivery, after the customer has a chance to inspect the item.

Alibaba’s initial SEC filing leaves a lot of questions left to be answered before its IPO actually commences later this year, like what exchange it will be listed on or how its shares will be priced. As a result, its true value is still unknown, but a couple of figures explain why the potential is so high. In the document, Alibaba reveals its partners shipped over 5 billion packages in 2013, more than UPS’ 4.3 billion global total last year. It claims more than 231 million active users in China, which Reuters points out is more than Amazon and eBay combined. As a shop that modestly calls itself “The largest online and mobile commerce company in the world,” expect its debut on the trading exchanges will have shockwaves that may impact Yahoo and Sprint first, but the rest of the internet won’t be far behind.

Filed under: Internet, Amazon

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Source: Alibaba (SEC)

For HBO, it’s all about making ‘good shit’

It’s not often that HBO CEO Richard Plepler is out doing some public speaking about his company. Today, however, Plepler took the stage at The Atlantic’s New York Ideas event in The Big Apple, where he was interviewed by NBC’s Willie Geist to talk about where HBO stands and where it’s headed. While Plepler may not have revealed any major secrets during the interview, it is always interesting to hear how the Home Box Office boss feels about the current status of the premium channel. For example, he talked about having lunch earlier in the day with a friend, who told him how HBO is known for making “good shit.” For Plepler, that’s music to the ears, as he said HBO is always striving to have the best contest possible. “We’re trying to create new addicts and build a new generation of viewers. What we’re trying to do is become a magnet for the best talent to come to work,” he stated.

One of the things Plepler also touched on was how the model of TV and HBO are completely different, stating that television measures its success by CPMs (cost per thousands, in relation to advertising), whereas HBO is focused on selling a brand. “All we’re trying to do is create the best product possible,” he said. “We don’t ask what the numbers are after a premiere; we ask if it delivered on our expectations.”

And, hey, of course Geist asked him about Netflix. In response to whether or not he considers the video-streaming giant a direct competitor, Plepler simply said, “No.” He went on to say, “As long as we are playing our game, we are going to have our fair share of attention.” Of course, a lot of that attention nowadays comes from people using HBO Go (some of whom don’t pay for it), and Plepler said the service is only going to get better. As he put it, “We are going to make sure we continue to advance the digital options of our brand.”

But regardless of who the competition may be, Plepler believes what’s important is that HBO focuses on making its content outstanding. “At the end of the day, it’s all about our product,” he said.

[Image credit: Getty Images North America]

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD

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Your smartphone may soon double as a hearing aid, thanks to Mimi

Let’s face it: we live in a noisy world. If we’re not sitting on loud trains or traipsing past construction sites, we’re retreating into music with headphones. Alas, this also means hearing loss is a problem that can’t be ignored — that’s why a startup called Mimi cooked up an iOS app to help you really figure out how far gone your hearing is.

At flrst blush, it’s a little like those old grade school hearing tests: as soon as you hear that telltale pulsating tone, you tap your phone’s screen. After two minutes, voila — you’ve got your own personal hearing profile which shows you how well your ears respond to different frequencies. Once that’s all done, you can experiment with “masks” to experience life through the ears of a middle-aged person or a construction worker (among others). The notion of hearing a pre-recorded message through someone else’s ears is a little bizarre, but it does open your eyes (or ears) to what others live with everyday.

Calling Mimi a mere hearing test is technically accurate for now, but the team behind it aspires to greater things. A future version of the app (which co-founder Phillipp Skribanowitz graciously let us play with at TechCrunch Disrupt NY) brings real-time audio enhancement into the mix. That mode (which will eventually cost you) chews on your hearing test data to tune the sound coming in through your headset’s microphone for your own ears — think of it as a software-based hearing aid on your phone. At this stage it’s not terribly polished, but I did notice that the preset meant for construction workers did make a brief conversation a little easier to hear. Skribanowitz did say though that the team was more concerned about getting a functional product out the door, and that some of the more valuable stuff will come after the app gets a few coats of polish. Also coming down the pipeline are more traditional physical hearing aids that optimize the world’s audio in the same way, though Skribanowitz told TechCrunch that the team’s heart really lies in software. The biggest rub? For now, the app is tuned to work best with Apple’s stock white EarPods and a pair of Sennheiser HDA 200s.

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