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Alibaba

also referred to as: alibaba group

27 statements across 20 episodes · 11 bullish · 4 bearish · 19 people on the record · first statement Sep 16, 2015 by Harry Stebbings · said 130 times in 53 episodes since 2015 · across every show →

Mentions by year

brought up most by Harry Stebbings (43), Larry Aschebrook (9), Jackie Reses (9), Crystal Huang (7), Rory O'Driscoll (6), Mitchell Green (5), Marcelo Claure (5), Jeff Richards (4)

tap a year for its mentions
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0510201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodes it came up in
002.55510201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodesmentions per episode
2026 13 mentions in 8 episodes 2 per episode
2025 25 mentions in 9 episodes 3 per episode
2024 22 mentions in 5 episodes 4 per episode
2023 13 mentions in 4 episodes 3 per episode
2022 4 mentions in 4 episodes 1 per episode
2021 12 mentions in 8 episodes 2 per episode
2020 2 mentions in 1 episode
2019 6 mentions in 2 episodes 3 per episode
2018 18 mentions in 4 episodes 5 per episode
2017 3 mentions in 3 episodes 1 per episode
2016 10 mentions in 3 episodes 3 per episode
2015 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode

every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about Alibaba, oldest first

Sep 16, 2015 positive
Assertion Partly supported
Fabrice Grinda has over $300M in exits and 200 angel investments
“He has over three hundred million dollars in exits and has made over 200 angel investments, including in the likes of Alibaba, Lending Club, and Brightroll.”
Harry Stebbings Sep 16, 2015 ▶ 0:15 20 VC 072: Super Angel, Fabrice Grinda: The Future of Startup Investing
Dec 21, 2015 bearish
Opinion
Eric Hippeau: Yahoo must sell itself to better management
“No, Yahoo is not game over, and Yahoo needs, needs probably needs to sell itself to people who can manage it better and Yahoo has an enormous amount of assets namely, it's taken Alibaba, it's taken Yahoo Japan, and its own its own own and operated website whic…”
Eric Hippeau Dec 21, 2015 ▶ 23:16 20 VC: Running Lerer Hippeau Ventures Like A Startup with Eric Hippeau, Managing Partner @ Lerer Hippeau Ventures
Mar 2, 2016
Disclosure
Tango reached a $1 billion valuation with 350 million users
“Tango, we were, I was, you know, I helped name that company. It was the first mobile messaging video conferencing app on the iPhone, Android phone, still has three hundred fifty million customers. We had a billion dollar valuation last year by Alibaba investme…”
Jim Scheinman Mar 2, 2016 ▶ 8:48 20VC: Building a Game Changing Consumer Startup and Hunting His 4th Unicorn with Jim Scheinman @ Maven Ventures
Oct 7, 2016 negative
Opinion
Alibaba is structurally relegated to acting as a glorified trade directory
“They're mostly focused on an East Asian supplier base, and mainly in mainland China. So most of Alibaba's buyer base is in Europe and America, and they're connecting with suppliers in East Asia. What that ends up meaning is that The currency issues, tariff iss…”
Karthik Sridharan Oct 7, 2016 ▶ 12:56 20VC: What Makes A Great marketplace Founder, The Key Metrics Marketplace Success Is Centred On & 3 Ways To Prove To Investors You Are A Domain Expert with Karthik Sridharan, Founder & CEO @ Kinnek
Jan 8, 2018 neutral
Assertion Partly supported
Hans Tung: Alibaba and JD.com Control Over 90% of Chinese E-Commerce
“I, fortunately we have that perspective being in China where Alibaba with Taobao and Tmall owns 80% of market share in e-commerce and JD has another over 10% market share in e-commerce.”
Hans Tung Jan 8, 2018 ▶ 7:50 20VC: Why This Is Just The Start for Consumer Mobile, 3 Lessons China Taught About How To Invest Better In The US & How To Think About The Opportunity Cost of Capital Deployment with Hans Tung, Managing Partner @ GGV Capital
Jan 8, 2018
Insight
Tung: Western tech companies must enter China via local strategic partners
“We think that a way to go to China is not necessarily to do it yourself, but find a strategic partner in the same way that Yahoo found Alibaba, and that's the right model. So it's not an issue of market. It's an issue of entry model in China.”
Hans Tung Jan 8, 2018 ▶ 7:26 20VC: Why This Is Just The Start for Consumer Mobile, 3 Lessons China Taught About How To Invest Better In The US & How To Think About The Opportunity Cost of Capital Deployment with Hans Tung, Managing Partner @ GGV Capital
Jan 10, 2018
Opinion
Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent exert more market dominance than US giants
“The top three exert An almost disproportionate influence on the market relative to even Amazon or Google in the US.”
Crystal Huang Jan 10, 2018 ▶ 17:56 20VC: 3 Key Differences Between US and Asian Tech Markets & With Such Large Incumbents Chasing Early Acquisitions, Is There A Market For Later Stage VC with Crystal Huang, Investor @ GGV Capital
Jan 10, 2018
Prediction Not checkable as stated
ChingCloud and uCloud might remain independent from Chinese tech giants
“There are some cloud services companies like Ching Cloud and uCloud, which are big enough at the moment and have enough customers where they might be able to stay independent.”
Crystal Huang Jan 10, 2018 ▶ 19:43 20VC: 3 Key Differences Between US and Asian Tech Markets & With Such Large Incumbents Chasing Early Acquisitions, Is There A Market For Later Stage VC with Crystal Huang, Investor @ GGV Capital
Jan 10, 2018
Assertion Supported
Alibaba's free DingTalk wiped out the Chinese enterprise chat startup market
“Alibaba released DingTalk, which is a free workplace collaboration and chat product. And it's been free and it's basically completely sucked away that market and run away with it. And now really nobody wants to build a chat enterprise chat product anymore beca…”
Crystal Huang Jan 10, 2018 ▶ 18:42 20VC: 3 Key Differences Between US and Asian Tech Markets & With Such Large Incumbents Chasing Early Acquisitions, Is There A Market For Later Stage VC with Crystal Huang, Investor @ GGV Capital
May 29, 2018 neutral
Insight
Alibaba and Tencent back rival startups rather than co-investing
“It's unlikely, for example, that both Alibaba and Tencent will come into the same company, and if one backs a company, then you can expect that the other will back a competing company in the space.”
Glenn Solomon May 29, 2018 ▶ 20:04 20VC: Lessons From Slack and Opendoor on Price Sensitivity, Why The Best CEOs Are Able To Manage Momentum and Why Being A Board Member is a "Full Contact Sport" with Glenn Solomon, Managing Partner @ GGV Capital
May 29, 2018 positive
Insight
Chinese tech giants prioritize early investment in breakout startups over copying them
“What I see happening more recently is not that those companies are copycatting and trying to kill startups. They're trying to identify the startups that have breakout potential and get money into them and invest in them as soon as possible.”
Glenn Solomon May 29, 2018 ▶ 19:38 20VC: Lessons From Slack and Opendoor on Price Sensitivity, Why The Best CEOs Are Able To Manage Momentum and Why Being A Board Member is a "Full Contact Sport" with Glenn Solomon, Managing Partner @ GGV Capital
Jan 21, 2019 positive
Assertion Supported
Greenspring Associates Direct Portfolio Includes Sonos, DocuSign, and Alibaba
“On the direct side, their portfolio includes the likes of Sonos, App Annie, DocuSign, and Alibaba, just to name a few.”
Harry Stebbings Jan 21, 2019 ▶ 0:27 20VC: The Framework LPs Use To Assess Emerging Managers, What Concerns and Excites LPs in Potential Opportunities & The Current State of Seed Today with Hunter Somerville, Partner @ Greenspring Associates
Mar 4, 2019 positive
Assertion Supported
GGV Capital invested in Alibaba in 2003 at a $200M valuation
“GGB was an early investor in Alibaba Group, and back in 2003, the two hundred million dollar valuation.”
Jeff Richards Mar 4, 2019 ▶ 22:25 20VC: The Transition From Founder To CEO, How To Determine When To Stretch On Price in Venture & The Benefits of Attribution for Partnership Dynamics with Jeff Richards, Managing Partner @ GGV Capital
Feb 17, 2020
Disclosure
Kutcher's early angel portfolio included Skype, Alibaba, and Foursquare
“I invested in Skype and Alibaba and Foursquare and this platform called Brizly, which was like a Twitter client And just started putzing around and finding my way towards interesting companies and interesting people and had some early success, which then led m…”
Ashton Kutcher Feb 17, 2020 ▶ 7:08 20VC: Ashton Kutcher on Early Lessons From Investing in Airbnb and Spotify, Why VC Ownership Requirements Are Becoming More and More Egregious & What Being Good At Product Truly Means
Sep 27, 2021 bearish
Prediction Open · timeframe Sep 2031
Amazon and Alibaba will lose top e-commerce positions within 10 years
“I think in 10 years from now, Amazon and Alibaba will not be the biggest e-commerce companies anymore. They will get disrupted by other companies, younger companies, more creative, more agile companies, and I think people will look back at Amazon and Alibaba l…”
Ralf Wenzel Sep 27, 2021 ▶ 34:21 20VC: The Rise of Quick Commerce and Why CPGs ARe Misaligned Being Powered By Ad Spend, The 5 Core Components Consumers Care About When Ordering Today & Why Amazon and Alibaba Will Not Be The Big Players in 10 Years with Ralf Wenzel, Founder & CEO @ JOKR
Oct 5, 2021
Disclosure
General Atlantic invested $75M in Alibaba but missed a chance for $300M
“We ended up investing seventy-five million into the business at that time, and, you know, I probably had pushed it, could have put three hundred million into it, but I was like, seventy-five million, we don't really know this”
Anton Levy Oct 5, 2021 ▶ 35:15 20VC: The Two Largest Changes in the Investing Market Today, Why The Scarce Resource in Venture is Access & Why Investors Are Acting Mostly Rational and Upside Scenario Planning Needs To Change with Anton Levy, Co-President @ General Atlantic
Aug 12, 2022 bullish
Insight
Claure: Entry valuation is irrelevant for companies targeting massive addressable markets
“The key is to determine in advance if it's a company where price matters or it doesn't. For some companies with an immense opportunity, think of Alibaba, think of Facebook, think of Google, think of Amazon, whatever. It was worth coming in at almost any price …”
Marcelo Claure Aug 12, 2022 ▶ 3:12 20VC: 13 of the Great Investing Minds on When to Pay Up vs When To Remain Disciplined and Walk Because the Price is too High: The Ultimate Guide to Price Sensitivity
Mar 31, 2023 positive
Assertion Supported
Reses: Yahoo Earned $50 Billion Through Renegotiated Alibaba Deal
“It probably generated fifty billion dollars worth of economics to Yahoo shareholders”
Jackie Reses Mar 31, 2023 ▶ 25:21 Jackie Reses: The Most Powerful Woman in Finance; Making $50BN for Yahoo on Alibaba | E996 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 26, 2024
Assertion Supported
Alibaba Pitch Framed Company as eBay, Amazon, and PayPal of China
“The story was positioned very simply that, hey, it's the China consumer play, and they are the eBay plus Amazon plus PayPal of China.”
Imran Khan Aug 26, 2024 ▶ 54:50 Imran Khan: Why the IPO Market is Not Closed & Lessons From Taking Snap & Alibaba Public | E1194 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 26, 2024 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Khan: Alibaba and Snap IPOs converted nearly 90% of roadshow meetings
“I don't remember the exact numbers, but yeah, both were pretty close to 90%.”
Imran Khan Aug 26, 2024 ▶ 31:51 Imran Khan: Why the IPO Market is Not Closed & Lessons From Taking Snap & Alibaba Public | E1194 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 26, 2024
Assertion Supported
Khan: Alibaba raised $8B to buy back 20% stake from Yahoo
“We bought back the share and then we had to go raise the money, raise the eight billion dollar to buy back that 20% stake.”
Imran Khan Aug 26, 2024 ▶ 51:41 Imran Khan: Why the IPO Market is Not Closed & Lessons From Taking Snap & Alibaba Public | E1194 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 26, 2024 positive
Insight
Khan: Waiving pre-IPO lockups for institutional investors has zero company cost
“So that lockup, while it was incredibly valuable to investors who bought that security, had zero cost to the company. So those are very creative transactions. So we give them the no lockup, you know, and they were fine doing the deal, you know, but the cost to…”
Imran Khan Aug 26, 2024 ▶ 54:13 Imran Khan: Why the IPO Market is Not Closed & Lessons From Taking Snap & Alibaba Public | E1194 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Dec 18, 2024 positive
Disclosure
UiPath uses Alibaba's open-source Qwen model for semi-structured documents
“We are using Gwen, which is a fantastic model built by Alibaba, which is totally open source. We are using it into understanding, like a lot of our semi-structured documents”
Daniel Dines Dec 18, 2024 ▶ 5:37 Daniel Dines, UiPath CEO & Founder: Why Agents Do Not Mean RPA is F*** | E1240 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 26, 2025 positive
Assertion Supported
Green: Alibaba made $1B in profit when Lead Edge invested
“Alibaba was very cash efficient, actually, when we invested, it was a billion dollars of profit.”
Mitchell Green Mar 26, 2025 ▶ 37:42 Mitchell Green, Founder @ Lead Edge Capital: Why Traditional VC is Broken · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 16, 2025 positive
Disclosure
Aschebrook began investing by buying stock from Jack Ma's family office
“I just started buying Twitter shares and Alibaba stock from Jack Ma's family office, and then holy shit, it worked.”
Larry Aschebrook Jun 16, 2025 ▶ 4:35 Larry Aschebrook, Founder & MP @GSquared: How We Lost Money on Uber and Made Millions on Lyft · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 30, 2025 negative
Disclosure
Freise: KKR Passed on an Early Investment Opportunity in Alibaba
“We literally at KKR had the chance to invest in Alibaba a long time ago, and that came on my desk, and I said no.”
Philipp Freise Jun 30, 2025 ▶ 1:02:58 KKR's Head of European PE, Philipp Freise: Do Andreessen & General Catalyst Scare KKR? · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025
Assertion Supported
Only 11 Venture-Backed IPOs Have Surpassed $50B in Market Cap
“There's been 11 fifty billion dollar IPOs ever. Venture backed. 11. Ok? The two largest venture backed IPOs ever, Or Facebook in 2012 and Alibaba in 2014.”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 39:53 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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