Alibaba Losing its Magic?

After delivering a much awaited $25 billion IPO last year, Chinese e-commerce player Alibaba’s (NYSE: BABA) glitter seems to be wearing off. The company is dealing with the SEC and Chinese regulators on sale of fake goods on their website and the latest financial results weren’t particularly impressive. To make it scarier, Jack Ma recently said that the company “isn’t too big to fail.”

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Billion Dollar Unicorns: ShopClues in India Shows Unicorn Characteristics

According to a recent study, active Internet users in India have grown from 21 million in 2006 to over 243 million by June 2014. And the trend is catching faster within the mobile segment. India had an impressive 185 million active mobile device Internet users last year. The growth of Internet penetration is leading to significant growth in e-commerce in the country as well. The e-commerce market in the country is estimated to have grown to $10 billion-$16 billion in 2014 and is projected to grow to $60 billion-$80 billion by the year 2020. The trend is helping set the stage for several potential Billion Dollar Unicorn club members in India as well.

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Billion Dollar Unicorns: MuleSoft Will Be Joining Soon

A Goldman Sachs study published last month estimates the global SaaS market to grow to $106 billion by next year, translating to a 15% growth over the year. Here is an interesting story of MuleSoft, an integration platform provider for multiple SaaS-based enterprise applications that is expected to join the Billion Dollar Unicorn club soon.

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Billion Dollar Unicorns: Zulily Tumbles

Till a few years ago, flash sales sites were the darlings of e-commerce. But soon, as the fad passed, so did their valuation. One of the recent sites to have fallen off the plank is Zulily (Nasdaq: ZU). The Billion Dollar Unicorn club member went public a little over a year ago in a rather successful IPO. But the tables have turned since and the company has seen its valuation crash as the company continues to miss the market’s expected financial metrics.

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Twitter Addressing Challenges Through Partnerships

Twitter’s (NYSE: TWTR) stellar growth story may have faded a bit, but it is still a powerful platform. User growth metrics may not be spectacular, but they exceeded the market’s financial expectations. It appears that things are getting back on track, albeit rather slowly.

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Billion Dollar Unicorns: Can Square Sustain Its Valuation?

A Gartner report on Mobile Payment Transactions estimated the worldwide mobile payment transaction values to have grown 44% to $235.4 billion in 2013. Gartner expects the market to grow to $721 billion by 2017. The mobile payments processing market is dominated by a Billion Dollar Unicorn club member Square.

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Billion Dollar Unicorns: GoDaddy Shying Away from IPO, Yet Again

Another Billion Dollar Unicorn club company is GoDaddy, which has made its place in the Internet domain marketplace by focusing on small businesses, professionals, and individuals. The company is nearly as old as the Internet itself and has come a long way since, but financials remain dodgy, leaving the market unimpressed. >>>

Billion Dollar Unicorns: Cleversafe’s Unique IP Strategy

Continuing with our Billion Dollar Unicorn club analysis, here is the story of another interesting company. Chicago-based Cleversafe was founded in 2004 by MIT alumnus, engineer, and serial entrepreneur Chris Gladwin. The company is addressing the growing large scale enterprise storage market, which according to IDC is estimated to grow to $17 billion by the year 2015.

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