Wedbush Analyst on Alibaba And Snapchat

Speaking to Benzinga, Wedbush Analyst Gil Luria commented on the Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA investment in Snapchat. http://www.benzinga.com/analyst-ratings/analyst-color/15/03/5320504/did-bob-peck-call-the-alibaba-snapchat-investment-last-y Luria said that the deal "makes a lot more sense than it may look [like] initially" as the analyst explained how Alibaba also invested in Weibo Corp (ADR) WB, a social media platform in China. Alibaba has "quite a bit of expertise in how to make that connection between mobile-intensive social media and e-commerce," according to Luria The analyst said that through such an investment, Alibaba could "put a foothold" in the U.S. market without having to compete directly with Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN and eBay Inc EBAY. "We don't know yet how Snapchat is going to get involved in e-commerce but Alibaba will be able to be a very good advisor in how to approach that problem," however, Luria noted that neither Facebook nor Twitter "had figured out how to introduce commerce in a significant way." Luria also noted that Snapchat is behind other companies in how to introduce e-commerce in social media so it would still be a number of years before the company could make advancement in that area, however, Alibaba would have a stake in Snapchat and be able to guide the initiative. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd recently traded at $81.87, down 0.15 percent. Kevin Riley and Brianna Valleskey contributed to this report.