Alibaba Group Holding Ltd Is Muddying Its Own Waters

In July of last year, I compared and contrasted Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), pointing out to current and would-be owners of BABA stock that the two companies weren?t carbon copies of one another. Aside from the disparate non-e-commerce businesses each outfit operates, Amazon is mostly an online retailer of goods it owns, while Alibaba is primarily a commission-based middleman. It was largely overshadowed by news that Alibaba would soon be streaming animated shows and movies made by Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS).