1
When was Amazon founded?
1994
Who founded Amazon?
Jeff Bezos
When was Alibaba found?
1999
Who founded Alibaba?
Jack Ma
What does AWS stand for?
Amazon Web Services
1. Which of the following is one of Amazon’s three main business segments?
A. Apple Services
B. North America
C. Alibaba Cloud
D. Google Ads
B. North America
5. Which of the following is NOT one of Alibaba’s four main segments?
A. China E-Commerce
B. International
C. AWS
D. Cloud
C. AWS
Which option correctly lists Amazon’s main revenue sources?
A. Retail, seller services, AWS, ads and subscriptions
B. Retail, logistics, banking, AWS and advertising
C. AWS, subscriptions, manufacturing, retail and healthcare
D. Seller services, advertising, logistics, cloud and finance
A. Retail, seller services, AWS, ads and subscriptions
What happened to Amazon in China in 2019?
It exited the market.
What is the main question of the presentation?
Which company’s global strategy is more sustainable in the long term?
What does a sustainable global strategy aim to protect over time?
A competitive advantage
Why is Amazon’s current strategy considered vulnerable?
A. Its profitability is heavily concentrated in AWS.
B. Its retail business generates no revenue.
C. Its international operations have completely failed.
D. It has no control over its logistics network.
A. Its profitability is heavily concentrated in AWS.
Which statement best describes the main weakness of Alibaba’s current international strategy?
A. Alibaba has achieved a stable and profitable global position.
B. Alibaba has not yet achieved a stable, profitable global position.
C. Alibaba has completely withdrawn from international markets.
D. Alibaba’s international business is more profitable than its domestic business.
B. Alibaba has not yet achieved a stable, profitable global position.
What four elements are used to define a sustainable strategy?
Competitive advantage, profitability, efficiency and adaptability
What does Amazon own that helps support its global strategy?
Fulfillment and technology infrastructure
Why does Amazon’s ownership of its fulfillment network give it a competitive advantage?
A. It allows Amazon to offer the lowest prices on every product.
B. It reduces Amazon’s reliance on third-party sellers and eliminates competition.
C. It gives Amazon greater control over delivery speed, reliability, and the customer experience.
D. It allows Amazon to generate most of its profits from its retail business.
C. It gives Amazon greater control over delivery speed, reliability, and the customer experience.
Alibaba chooses to rely more on external partners rather than owning the entire value chain. What is the main trade-off of this approach?
A. Higher capital requirements but greater control
B. Lower capital requirements but greater dependence on partners
C. Higher costs and lower flexibility
D. Lower flexibility but complete operational control
B. Lower capital requirements but greater dependence on partners.
Amazon struggled to compete with local rivals in China and eventually changed its focus. Which concept does this example illustrate?
A. Market adaptation
B. Vertical integration
C. Revenue diversification
D. Partner dependence
A. Market adaptation
Why can Alibaba’s lower capital requirements be strategically useful?
They allow expansion with less upfront investment.
Why is AWS a concentration risk for Amazon?
A large share of operating profit comes from AWS
If AWS disappeared, what would happen to Amazon’s ability to fund global expansion?
Amazon would have to rely much more on lower-margin retail profits, reducing its financial capacity for expansion.
If Alibaba becomes highly successful in international AI services, what strategic problem could this solve?
It could give Alibaba a second global profit engine beyond international e-commerce
Using all four criteria, explain why the presentation concludes that Amazon is more sustainable today.
Amazon has a proven position, a stable structure, a hard-to-copy profit engine in AWS, and measurable efficiency gains, while Alibaba is still adapting, has less-proven AI commercialization, and faces international profitability and regulatory challenges.
Why might Amazon’s stable three-segment structure become a disadvantage if market conditions change dramatically?
A stable structure can support execution, but it may also need to adapt if the competitive environment changes significantly.
Why does Alibaba face a credibility challenge when entering the global cloud market?
AWS, Azure and Google Cloud already have established customers, experience and trust.