Alibaba’s value tops US$470 billion, briefly passing Amazon as world’s most valuable merchant
Alibaba Group briefly unseated Amazon.com as the world’s most valuable online retailer in US trading on Tuesday.
Shares of the Chinese e-commerce company rose as much as 1.3 per cent to an intraday high of US$184.46 in the New York morning session, giving it a market value of US$472.4 billion and surpassing Amazon’s market cap of US$470 billion.
The stock trimmed the gain to end the day up 0.6 per cent at US$183.12, valuing Alibaba at US$469 billion, while Amazon’s shares fell 0.4 per cent to US$987.20, capitalising the company at US$474.2 billion.
Amazon’s market value overtook Alibaba in July 2015 and has held the lead over its Chinese rival since then.
Alibaba is now the world’s sixth biggest company by market cap, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Hangzhou-headquartered company is also Asia’s largest, followed by Tencent Holdings with a market cap of US$424.8 billion.
Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.