Alibaba decreases Yahoo value with payment processing transfer

A discussion of mega-sized e-commerce sites may not be relevant to the average SEO executive’s effort to build traffic for their clients. However, anytime we can better understand the global aspects of the internet we are all in a better position to build locally. Indeed every day we face giants in the form of websites with millions of pages compared to the ones we create and promote sporting at best ten thousand. Understanding the failings of these monster sites is the only hope an SEO David fighting a Goliath has.

All of this prefaces a look at Alibaba. Twelve years ago a clever Chinese fellow by the name of Ma Yun (Jack Ma) envisioned a website whereby all manner of Chinese goods could be brokered and bought. With the help of around 25 million dollars worth of dot com venture capital he created Alibaba. Unlike most dot com era ventures, Mr. Ma’s idea was extremely sound. So much so that it became the premier portal to Chinese manufactured goods sent to the rest of the world. The site now has around a billion products listed on 400 million pages. Hence it qualifies easily as a “megasite.” For those who follow Google pagerank, Alibaba.com is a PR9. A few years ago Yahoo invested one billion dollars to purchase a 40% share in Alibaba. The plan was to integrate existing Chinese Yahoo operations into Alibaba so as to allow Yahoo to corner the market on Chinese search. Meanwhile Alibaba advertising would be all over Yahoo resulting in tremendous sales growth and profit for all. It was a darned good idea.

But 40% of a company headquartered in Hong Kong is not the same as 40% of a business run from London or Seattle. The rules are quite different in totalitarian governed countries. For one thing, the Chinese government was not about to give Yahoo access to its banking system. Part of the Alibaba build up was the creation of Alipay, the largest payment processor in the eastern hemisphere. The estimated value of Alipay is approximately 5 billion dollars. That value would mean that Yahoo’s investment had doubled. It would mean that, had not Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma unilaterally sold Alipay to himself for 46 million dollars. Yahoo is facing class action suits from shareholders and Ma Yun replies to all that the situation is “complicated.”

No it’s not. When one ventures abroad for commerce and does not control the purse strings from their home nation, investment will be manipulated and appropriated (stolen). The Alibaba concept was and remains powerful and brilliant. But consumers must ultimately establish the flow of Pounds or Dollars into these foreign coffers. As such we must control purchases from our home nations. We will do this by building UK and US based websites for foreign trade protected by law. Funds will transfer within our banking systems and shares will be owned on London or New York exchanges. Unlike oil fields and Chinese factories, websites are entities that we in developed nations can build and control. We develop the technology and we need to control it.

Several Bills Being Formed to Make Online Poker Legal In the USA

The campaign to finally introduce a bill to make it legal for Americans to play online poker is gathering pace following the ‘Black Friday’ clampdown in April that saw the US Department of Justice (DoJ) shut several major poker sites .

Texas Republican House of Representatives member Joe Barton – a senior House Energy and Commerce Committee member who also enjoys poker – is not the only politician aiming to push through legislation that would legalise online poker as well as create a federal regulatory agency to supervise the sites.

The 61-year-old has been joined by Washington Democratic Representative Jim McDermott, who is poised to reintroduce legislation that would tax licensed online gaming in the USA.

The 74-year-old from Chicago has produced a complimentary bill to Massachusetts Democratic Representative Barney Frank’s legislation that would regulate and legalise Internet gambling.

McDermott believes that “ legalising, regulating and taxing Internet gambling just makes sense ”.