????周五，阿里巴巴（Alibaba）以92.7美元的價格開盤，比發行價提高了36.32%。

????對這家中國電子商務巨擘，投資者受其預期盈利影響，一直反應狂熱。紐約大學教授、公司估值專家阿斯沃斯?達摩達蘭認為，和幾乎所有熱門IPO不同，阿里巴巴并沒有高估，原因就是該公司的利潤率——也就是利潤和銷售額的比例——很高。

????問題在于阿里巴巴的高利潤率實際上只是一個海市蜃樓。

????記錄銷售額時，阿里巴巴只計算在它的網站上完成交易的買賣雙方拿出來的手續費。因此，該公司的營業利潤率（營業利潤占銷售額的百分比）可以達到51%。與之相反，沃爾瑪（Wal-Mart）和亞馬遜（Amazon）公布的銷售額是實體店（沃爾瑪的店面）和網站（沃爾瑪和亞馬遜網站）上售出商品的總金額。如果按這樣的方法計算阿里巴巴的營業利潤，這家電商企業的盈利能力就顯得不那么令人激動了，就像施了魔法一樣。用這樣的標準衡量，阿里巴巴過去12個月的營業利潤率會下降到1.4%，毫不起眼。就算和沃爾瑪略高于5%的利潤率相比，這樣的盈利水平看來也不那么激動人心。（財富中文網）

????譯者：Charlie

????Shares of Alibaba began trading on Friday at $92.7, up nearly 36.32% from the offering price.

????Investors have been so excited about the Chinese e-commerce giant primarily because of its perceived profits. Aswath Damodaran, a New York University professor and an expert on corporate valuation, cited Alibaba’s high profit margins—how much of its sales make it to the bottom line—when he argued that Alibaba, unlike nearly every other hot IPO, was not overpriced.

????The problem is that Alibaba’s high profit margins are actually a mirage.

????When it records sales, Alibaba only counts the commissions it receives for completing transactions between buyers and sellers on its website. As a result, the company’s operating margins (operating profits as a percentage of sales) come to 51%. Wal-Mart and Amazon , however, report sales as the total dollar volume of goods sold in their stores (for Wal-Mart) or on their site (for Amazon, and Wal-Mart). Compute Alibaba’s operating profits that way and, alakazam, the e-commerce company’s profitability doesn’t look so hot. Its operating profit shrinks to an unimpressive 1.4% over the past 12 months. Even compared to Wal-Mart’s just over 5%, that doesn’t look so hot.