Dissecting Alibaba's Growth - Part I

Alibaba (BABA) and Jack Ma have been two hot names in the past year. Just this week, Alibaba announced another deal that made newspaper headlines – the proposed acquisition of Youku Todou Inc. (YOKU) for more than $4 billion. Youku Tudou, just like Alibaba, has had phenomenal revenue growth in the past few years, but unlike Alibaba, has not made any profit since it was founded. Prior to the announcement of the Youku Todou acquisition, Alibaba had also made a few other acquisitions that had phenomenal revenue growth, but have yet to show profitability such as UC Web and AutoNavi in 2014.