Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA) Is A Formidable Company: Kayla Tausche

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) now offers a formidable challenge to technology companies in the U.S., Kayla Tausche said in a special report for CNBC.

From its beginnings in the apartment of founder and CEO Jack Ma in 1999, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) is now responsible for 80% of all electronic commerce in China. It’s valued at $240 billion in the U.S. public market, Tausche noted.

“Alibaba’s business models is often described as a mashup between Amazon and eBay, but it’s now a formidable challenge to tech companies here in the U.S. It’s bigger than Disney, IBM and JPMorgan Chase,” she said.

In its IPO, the biggest in U.S. history, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) saw its shares soar from the offer price of $68 per share to well above $90 per share.

Nonetheless, Tausche said that Ma has revealed that he aspires not to be like Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), which most would consider its rival. According to Ma, he wants Alibaba to become a company like Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT), International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) or Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT).

Ma said that Wal-Mart changed the business world which is why he said he aspires to have his company considered as in the same league.

If the sheer size of Ma’s platform is any indication, he may be on his way to achieving this goal. Tausche said that Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA)’s platform sold $269 billion in goods in 2013. The vendors on the platform were responsible for 60% of all packages shipped in China last year.

Tausche noted that the company helps mostly small business connect with a new audience, thereby giving a boost in China’s middle class, which is probably why it has become very successful in the country.

Rob Citrone’s Discovery Capital Management owned about 10.39 million Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) shares by the end of the first quarter the company went public in the U.S.