Alibaba's IPO made headlines following its record-breaking valuation at $231 billion, which surpassed Coke's and Facebook's worth. With shares starting at $68 and now hovering around $93, the company has been performing quite well even for Silicon Valley standards, posing threats to players like eBay and Amazon. 

Like Us on Facebook

Alibaba debuted on the New York Stock Exchange with flying colors as shares went up by as much as $100. The shares started at $68 before closing at $93.89 last September 18. This puts the company's value larger than eBay and Amazon combined. 

Alibaba's performance propelled Jack Ma as China's richest man with shares amounting to $19 billion. 

"We hope in the next 15 years the world changes because of us. We hope in 15 years people say this is a company like Microsoft, IBM, Walmart. They changed, shaped the world ... We want to be bigger than Walmart," Ma shared. 

According to analysts, Alibaba is now a threat to major Silicon Valley players because it combines all of their major services in one platform. For instance, it can be viewed as an integration of PayPal, Amazon, and eBay. CNN's discussion of Alibaba's IPO also compared the company to companies like Groupon and Netflix. 

In a nut shell, the company serves as a business-to-business trading platform that gives global access and opportunities to small enterprises across the globe. It also offers a diverse shopping experience catering to all types of consumers. Alibaba's leverage comes from its market reach as it 'operates' in more than 240 countries. 

The Alibaba Group is composed of a number of subsidiaries with services that can rival many of Silicon's players. For instance, Aliexpress.com oversees transaction based retail. This gives smaller enterprises the chance to purchase goods in limited quantities at a discounted or manufacturer's rate. Alipay.com, on other hand, provides online money transaction services like PayPal. Services do not charge transaction fees. Alipay has turned into China's largest enterprise, catering to 300 million users.

TagsCoke