Comparison Between Business Model of Ecommerce Retail Segment of Amazon and Alibaba

In this digital era, ecommerce has been an essential element of the economy of most developed countries and a lot of developing countries. The US and China were pioneers in this industry and exhibited a significant amount of growth since the 1990s with Amazon and Alibaba being the current dominant firms. This paper compares the business model and past performances of Amazon and Alibaba primarily through examining their annual reports in 2022, supported by data from reports in 2020. This paper concluded that the two companies were similar in stem but adopted different strategies because of difference in business environment including demographics, legal restrictions and level of competition. The author believes that the ecommerce industry will gradually evolve into a monopolistic competition. Amazon and Alibaba shall keep up with the latest technologies to maintain their market shares from taking away by competitors, including advancements in big data computing and generative AI, as well as alternate business models as demand for online services became more diversified with the increasing reliance of ecommerce after covid.